
Copight^?. 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSm 



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in 2010 with funding from 
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FUTURE 






REV. ROBERT E. TYLER 

BIRMINGHAM, ALABAMA 
1912 



Copywrighfted by Kobert E. Tyler 
19 12 



gCLA320057 



TO THE MEMOEY 

OF MY 

FATHEK AND MOTHEE 

KiCHARD LaWSON AND MaRY AnN TyLER 

Who served their generation well and answered 

"Eeady" to the Master's summons during my 

term of service in Mexico, this volume 

is affectionately inscribed. 




COUNTRY of mysterious origin and 
vast antiquity; of noble scenery and 
impressive history; of picturesque costumes, 
and a life half Spanish and half Oriental; 
The dwelling place of Aztecs and of Spaniards; 
the battleground of Montezuma and of Cortez; 
the realm of sunshine and of silver — Mexico. 
— John L. Stoddard's Lecture on ^'Mexico." 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER I. 
The Cliff Dwellers 17 

CHAPTER II. 

A Missionary Itinerary Among Natives 23 

CHAPTER III. 
Hunting and Being Hunted 31 

CHAPTER IV. 
Habits and Customs 39 

CHAPTER V. 
Educational System and Progress 63 

CHAPTER VI. 

i/ Resources, Natural and Commercial , , 83 

CHAPTER VII. 
Romanism vs. Evangelism 103 

CHAPTER VIII. 
History — Ancient and Colonial 123 

CHAPTER IX. 
History — Independence . , 149) 

CHAPTER X. 
History — Modern 173 

CHAPTER XL 
Mexico's Tomorrovt^ 207 

CHAPTER Xn. 
Pyramids of Mexico . 228 



ILLUSTEATIONS. 



Slkyscraper of Savages 16-17 

Dens of Rockmen 16-17 

Tent of E«ck 16-17 '^' 

Dwelling in Original Cliffs 16-17 '' 

Group of pupils of Durango Mission School. . 48-49 -^ 

Strange Market 48-49 i-^ 

Tunnel of Sierra Madre 48-49 ■ ' 

Game 48-49./ 

Preparing Meal by Wayside 48-49 

Irrigated Corn 96-97 

Hauling Telegraph Poles 96-97 ' 

Durango Timber 96-97 

Baisaiaich Fall 96-97 

Crowd at Daily Climes 112-113 

Holy Week Scene ^ 112-113 

Patio of MacDonald Institute .112-118 

Interior Mission Hospital, Monterey 112-113 

Cathedral, Mexico City 172-173 

Chepultepec, Mjesico City , 172-173 

Plaza, Durango 172-173 

Iron Mountain 172-173 

Public Wash House 172-173 

Madero 226-227 

Pyramid of Sun 226-227 

Pyramid of Moon 226-227 

Women as Beasts of Burdeti 226-227 v 



m 



INTRODUCTION. 

LAND of romantic and historic interest 
from the beginnings of Western civil- 
ization, Mexico, during the past year, 
has been the cynosure of the eyes of the world. 
Nowhere have her recent revolutionary strug- 
gles been watched with deeper interest than 
in her great sister republic to the north of 
her. Nowhere is her future a matter of more 
vital concern than amongst the people of the 
United States. Nor will our interest in all that 
concerns the welfare of our neighbor republic 
abate with the cessation of war and the estab- 
lishment of civil order within her boundaries. 
The immediate future is destined to bring these 
ttwo countries yet closer together. With the 
completion of the Panama Canal, the people of 
the United States and the people of Mexico will 
be drawn into such close neighborly relations, 
that nothing which concerns the welfare of the 
one can be a matter of indifference to the other. 
Mr. Tyler's book is brought out at the psycho- 
logical moment. It brings to us a more intimate 
knowledge of a land that will be a veritable 
treasure-house to the historian and novelist, to 
the archaeologist and ethnologist of tomorrow; 
a land in which new chapters of economic and 



12 Introduction. 

political development are to be written; a land, 
too, in which will be centered the interests and 
activities of millions of Protestant Christians in 
the United States whose missionary enterprises 
there are now merely at their beginning. 

The author has enjoyed exceptional oppor- 
ttmities for a close study of his subject at first 
hand. His service for a period of years as a 
missionary of the Methodist Episcopal Church, 
South, in Mexico, has carried him well over the 
field of his investigations; and his student's in- 
stinct has led him to a painstaking and analytical 
study of conditions that have come under his 
observation. The results of his studies in this 
land, whose history runs backwards from the 
renaissance of today to the romance and history 
of Toltec and Aztec civilizations, will be read 
with profit. 

J. H. McCoy. 

Birmingham, Alabama. 




PREFACE. 

ITH an earnest desire to aid in some 
degree the study of Mexico's affairs by 
Americans, the author has undertaken 
tc give a brief, simple, connected story of 
what he considers to be the most important 
incidents of Mexican history, as well as to dis- 
cuss in a simple^ fair, and unbiased manner the 
habits and customs of the people, together with 
what he believes to be the livest and most inter- 
esting questions of the hour. He reduces to 
writing his observations and careful study of 
these questions after a residence in the country 
of a number of years; but he feels that he is en- 
tirely unprepared to do justice to the subject. 
He will be many times repaid if tHis humble 
effort should result in some one making a more 
careful study of this important land. 

Latin Mexico, lying between the United States 
of America and the Panama Canal, is a country 
of intense interest, and will grow to be of more 
and more interest as her future unfolds. Neigh- 
bors should visit, write to, and study each other 
that they may understand each other better, 
realizing that nine-tenths of their troubles are 
^hose that never come, or that come through 



14 Preface. 

misunderstandings and misinterpretations. A 
Mexican gentleman, a teacher, a lawyer and an 
editor, said to the writer, "You Americans are 
responsible for many of our faults for bragging 
on us too much." The author has not refrained 
from being critical, but at the same time has 
tried to be fair. 



n 



CHAPTER I. 
The Cliff Dwellers. 

HE little people who inhabited the re- 
gions along the Rockies and Sierra 
Madre before the discovery of the 
Western World, dwelling in the crevices of the 
ragged clififs, or in cities stuck to the cliffs 
by their magic hands, have left the world a 
topic of wonder-study. The story of these inter- 
esting little folk is not a subject of 
W h o theory and fiction, but of fact and his- 
W e r e tory. Specimens of this almost ex- 
They? tinct race are still to be seen, some- 
times exhibited as Aztecs; but Aztecs 
were as large as the Indians of any other tribe. 
These early little inhabitants of Mexico, in size, 
color and physiognomy resemble more the 
Japanese than any other race, and have as the 
Aborigines of Mexico strengthened the theory 
that Mexicans are Japanese in origin. But if 
the Cliff Dwellers are degenerates of Japanese 
stock, and it is true that the ridge of a mountain 
chain now submerged in our western waters 



16 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

formed a dry bridge to the eastern continent, it 
would still remain a mystery as to how these 
degenerates were developed into large stalwart 
Mexicans. No, they were of mysterious origin 
and were exterminated like other early inferior 
races. They did not, like the Aztecs, attain any 
high degree of civilization. They knew nothing 
of agriculture and letters, whereas the Aztecs 
excelled some of the lower class Mexicans of 
today in both agriculture and letters, and even 
in ethics. The Cliff Dwellers only knew archi- 
tecture and built houses and made a quaint 
pottery. 

These mysterious people were on an average 
about two feet in height and weighed about 
thirty pounds. They were as active as monkeys 

and with the single exception that the 
What top of the head resembled that of the 
Were monkey, they were well developed 
They? people, having; big, brown eyes, black 

hair and perfect facial expression, and 
exhibiting no stub of a tail. They lived in these, 
to human mind, inaccessible places, subsisting 
on roots, berries, flesh of wild animals and fish. 
They attained renown in architecture, but made 
no effort in a literary line. They left no hiero- 
glyphics cut in stone or wood, although they 
carved in. both. (In fact, "Toltec" becomes a 
synonym for architecture.) The Cliff Dwellers 




■Ji 





Dens of the Roekmen. 




w 



> 



The Cliff Dwellers ^^ 

were numerous among the cliffs of the Sierra 
Madra when the Toltecs from Arizona and Cal- 
ifornia invaded Mexico about the middle of the 
sixth century A. D. The exact date is unknown. 
Thos. Brocklehurst in his Ancient History gives 
the date as 500 A. D., while Prescott (Vol. I., 
page 8) gives the date when Tula was established 
as 648 A. D., possibly following date given by 
Clavigero. But the three renowned Indian 
scholars, Mendoza, SoHs and Ramirez, in their 
criticism and correction of Chimalpopoca's mod- 
ern translation of Anales de Cuautitilan when 
they were connected with the National Museum 
of Mexico placed the date at 674 A. D. It 
was simply a question of the '^survival of the 
fittest," and the little denizens of the mighty 
rocks were soon exterminated. 

The writer in October, 1908, made a hazard- 
ous exploration tour of the ruins of a city built 
by the Cliff Dwellers in the far interior of 
Mexico. We started from the city 
Vi s i t of Chihuahua, capital of the State of 

To Their Chihuahua, one morning at seven 
Dens. o'clock, by rail, due west, and reach- 
ed the end of the line next morning 
at ten o'clock, about one hundred miles over the 
National Divide on the Pacific Slope. There we 
procured mules and guides and started out 



18 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

through the hills in a northwesterly direction. 
After two and a half days we came to the verge 
of what is known as "Big Black Canon." After 
shooting some deer and turkey that stoo i about 
our camping place, we struck camp near by in 
a tributary to this Black Canon. After resting 
up, enjoying refreshing sleep and savory wild 
meats, we started out with our guides the next 
morning in search of the wonderful ruins of the 
P.ockmen. For two hours we climbed up the 
cliffs and at last we reached the very edge of the 
g-reat rocks that protruded over the mighty preci- 
pice that seemed like a cloud hanging out in the 
sky. Down, down, a thousand feeF and more 
beneath our feet, madly dashed along over rock 
and precipice a beautiful river like splashing 
silver from some volcanic furnace. Across on 
the other side of the canon from where we stood, 
in plain view, were the dens of the ClifTmen. It 
looked like a picture — a dream it seemed! We 
looked up and across to the horizon again, and 
for half a mile the rugged rocks gradually sloped 
towards us, and then a hundred feet of solid 
perpendicular rock stood before us, then pro- 
truding a hundred feet out over the canon, then 
straight down again, then back under the hill for 
a hundred feet, and then, below this on a little 
bench about halfway down the perpendicular 
precipice, we saw the strangest sight! Not as I 



The Cliff Dwellers 19 

had imagined had these little fellows carved and 
cut their dens in the cliffs, but like people they 
had built them out of timbers and mud, shaping 
them up into a beautiful architecture upon this 
high shelf. Upon this high bench, seemingly in- 
accessible to anything without wings, was built 
a city, not in ruins, but in perfect order, room 
after room, house after house, story above 
story ! 

We turned from this strange, vacated city to 
our camp, to dream of the things and people 
^■hat used to be. One thing was certain, it was 

not the home of robbers of 

Construction later days, for these builders 

of Houses. had selected the places of no 

protection from rifle or arrow 
or stone, and had built houses easily crumbled 
even by falling stones, when perfectly protected 
places v/ere near at hand. What could it mean? 
It was simply a city built by intelligent people 
at a place and after a manner to their liking in 
peace and pleasure. The next morning we start- 
ed out to visit the opposite side, the side on 
which the buildings were located, knowing at 
the same time that we would not get as good a 
view as on the previous evening but hoping to 
I e able to reach some one building in the suburbs 
for closer scrutiny. Our expectations were more 



20 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

than realized, for from one protruding clifif we 
could see one portion of the city at closer range, 
and made some pictures of it. Finally we reach- 
ed one building. The rooms were about eight 
feet square and six feet to the ceiling. The 
doors were about one and a half feet wide and 
two and a half feet high. The windows were 
about eighteen inches square and were placed 
around promiscuously, showing the only sign of 
irregularity in the entire structure. The corners 
of the building were plumb and the doors set 
plumb. The doors had wood jambs and the roof 
had wood joists, seemingly cut with stone. The 
wood in that dry climate will easily last two 
thousand years. I noticed some joists that were 
taken out of an old cathedral that had been 
built in the town of Nombre de Dios, State of 
Durango, one hundred years before George 
Washington was born, and they were perfectly 
sound — so much so that they were put into a fine 
new building. The houses had no floors (but not 
one in five that is built now in Mexico has a 
floor). The walls were made of dirt, seemingly 
a mixture of mud, gravel and straw, very similar 
to the "adobe" that is in nine-tenths of the 
houses of Mexico today. The plastered walls of 
this straw-mud were skillfully executed and 
seemingly eternal. 
In this house we reached we found many bones 



The Cliff Dwellers 21 

of skeletons of these people. The partial skel- 
etons that we were able to put together showed 
that they were about the size of 
Bones and the few specimens now on ex- 
Strange Gap hibition through the country — 
In Doors. about two feet high. A strange 

little gap was noticed at the bot- 
tom in the center of each door, seemingly cut 
about seven inches wide and four or five inches 
deep. Some thought it had been worn there by 
their feet passing in and out, but others 
thought on account of the regularity that it was 
cut there for some purpose. The doors in the 
second and third stories of the buildings all had 
the same gap. 

They had built in the corner of the yard a cis- 
tern in the exact shape and as perfect as those 
ia use today. How strange it looked stuck to 
the wall like hornets' nests, so in- 
Cistern accessible to water! One house had 
«nd Porch a beautiful porch in shape and style 
of those of today. Along in front of 
a row of two-story houses was built a nice yard 
—all of this upon a bench where it seemed that 
only beings with wings could have gone. 

The ClifiF-folk did not always dwell in houses 
made of stick and mud, but often lived in caves 



22 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

along the cliffs. In fact, when they were most 

numerous in the country, pos- 

Some Lived sibly the majority of them dwelt 

Only only as other wild animals, in 

In Caves. the holes in the hills, but as 

they could, the most energetic 

'•nd intelligent among them began to plan and 

build houses. After all, they deserve more credit 

than we, for having built houses in perfect order, 

joined together, story above story, with doors 

and windows, porch and yard, cistern, etc., all 

without any kind of a model, when we have 

theirs to copy from and improve upon. 



m 



CHAPTER II. 

A Missionary Itinerary Among Natives, 

S the writer's work in Mexico was con- 
fined principally to American colonies 
^^^ there he did not have very many oppor- 
tunities to do mission work among the natives. 
However, after learning Spanish he often preach- 
ed for them on special occasions and attended 
Iheir revivals and prayer meetings. And during 
the three years that he served as pastor of the 
American congregation at Durango he had sev- 
eral opportunities to make itineraries among the 
Mexican congregations, assisting the presiding 
elder in his strenuous work, as he lived some 
seven hundred and fifty miles away in El Paso. 
So on some occasions when he did not feel well 
enough to make the 1,500 miles by rail and four 
days by cart, the station pastor was asked to do 
one or nore of these trips. Having made some 
of these trips in company with the presiding 
elder, and feeling inclined to do this kind of 



24 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

work, he was always eag^er for service of this 
nature. 

The author's first evangelistic itinerary among 
the natives was a trip to Nombre de Dios, a 
town more than three hundred years old, of three 
thousand inhabitants, not one 
Nombre de Dios of whom spoke a word of 
(Name of God). English. He hired a four- 
mule wagon, and, not feeling 
equal to the Spanish task of really conducting a 
Mexican quarterly meeting, which always pro- 
tracted into a revival of several days' duration, 
he asked one of the missionaries, Miss Mae 
Treadwell, who had charge of the McDonell In- 
stitute, to accompany him on this trip, as it was 
during holidays. So after the work of Sunday 
was over, Monday early in the morning the 
driver reported at the parsonage with his team. 
The writer with his family and two teachers from 
the school started out on this mission with a 
prayer on their lips that some good might be ac- 
complished. Their first subject for spiritual in- 
structions was the driver. This first experience 
proved an easy task, for the coachero, although 
very superstitious about the gringo's Protestant- 
ism, on this occasion acquiesced in the teachings 
of the simple gospel and was saved. 



A Missionary Itinerary 25 

The illustration on another page gives the sit- 
uation at the lunch hour about twenty miles out 
from the city, preparing a meal by the wayside. 
No opportunity for instruction was given here 
as no one was encountered during this short 
trip. 

At Salto, the Niagara of Mexico (Salto means 
a fall — see illustration), where camp was struck 
for the first night, a splendid opportunity was 
given for special work. This was the 
First midway ''inn" from the City of Du- 
Night rango to Nombre de Dios. This great 
Out. camping place for all "passers-by" con- 

sisted of three families, a large lot or 
feeding place for stock, and a grand hotel of 
two rooms without floor, chairs, tables or beds. 
The one room here that was "to let" was very 
familiar to the writer and his family, as on a 
previous occasion they had found it necessary 
tc pass the night there, and during the supper 
hour were overcome by the gas from the Mex- 
ii'an's charcoal cooking and came near losing 
their lives. The writer on this later visit pre- 
sented to this people the gospel, most of whom 
accepted it freely and gladly. Some tracts were 
left for distribution and a Bible was given to 
one who could read on a promise that it should 
he read to the guests who chanced to stop by 



?6 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

horn day to day. Hundreds passed that way 
conveying precious metals from the mountains 
to the railroad. With many a ''Gracias" and 
"Adios" (thank you) and (goodbye), the party 
departed early the next morning, arriving at 
Nombre de Dios at three o'clock in the after- 
noon and began to call the people of the mission 
together for a series of services. The quarterly 
meeting was held and revival services began im- 
mediately. A goodly number of followers were 
soon congregated, and singing, praying and 
praising God started in the very first service in 
a manner that easily prolonged the service until 
the midnight hour. Such faith, consecration and 
devotion as that congregation manifested was 
indeed glorious. 

During the progress of the meeting many 
times the rabble who had gathered outside of the 
building cursed and threw stones against the 

walls. The writer must confess 
Outside that he felt a little uneasy, as on 

Disturbance, his previous visit to the town 

with the presiding elder, which 
occurred on the i6th of September (the Mex- 
icans' Fourth of July), when the streets were full 
of people drinking, they were forced to sit up 
during the night with their Winchester rifle, 
shot-gun and revolvers in hand, expecting every 



A Missionary Itinerary 27 

moment for the door to give way under the 
heavy pressure of the stones that were constant- 
ly thrown against it. When morning came the 
rabble were too drunk to cast stones and the 
preachers could go about town without their 
guns. 

On this latter trip the rufBans who first began 
to make trouble were soon brought under the 
influence of the meeting and several of them con- 
verted. A conference was held 
Reconciled. with the priest of the city, a 
young, progressive fellow, who 
frankly admitted that his people would be im- 
proved morally if the people were more equally 
divided, saying that Romanism had encountered 
no opposition until lethargy and immorality had 
taken deep hold upon his people. 

The party slept three nights in the little chapel, 
turning rough benches together and spreading 
blankets upon them. All the homes of the con- 
gregation were open to the vis- 
Slept In itors, but this was chosen as 
The Church. being more comfortable for the 
party, and because the people 
were very poor and would be greatly incon- 
venienced otherwise. After the "goodbyes" and 
''God bless you" and ''keep you through the 
night," etc., were finally over, after midnight it 



28 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

was easy to sleep even on a hard rough board. 
All knew the crowd would be back early next 
morning ready to sing and pray through the day. 

This devotion to God's house and appreciation 
of His laborers sufficiently inspired one to his 
greatest efficiency and even beyond the bounds 
of his strength. It was on this 
Inspiration spot that the sainted Robert 

and MacDonell fell on sleep after 

Opportunity his journey from Durango. Fri- 
day morning the final "Adios" 
had to be said, for it was necessary to reach Du- 
rango for the Sunday service. The party started 
on their return trip the next morning feeling 
that the visit had been worth while. 

On reaching home the first duty that the writer 
and his wife faced was to look after their old 
idol manufacturer, an aged Spaniard of some 
ninety years who lived second door from the 
parsonage, and who was seriously ill when they 
left. Quite a friendship had sprung up between 
Pascual (the idol maker) and the American pas- 
tor and his family. Although thoroughly trained 
in and wedded to the ways of Rome, and super- 
stitious and ignorant, he had been taught by the 
writer to look through and beyond his idols to 
his Maker. They found him on their return in 
a dying condition. Upon the re-appearance of 
his American friends he rallied, and then, with 



A Missionary Itinerary 29 

the cross of gold on his heart and the image of 
the Virgin Mary held in front of his eyes, with 
his hand holding that of the Protestant pastor 
who prayed that he might have a true vision of 
the Savior, and then whispering ''It is well, it is 
well," a beautiful smile played over his face as he 
closed his eyes in death. 

The writer felt well paid for any and all sacri- 
fices and services rendered in Mexico for testi- 
monials in death like that of Pascual. Reflecting 
on the happy days of service on this field in the 
Master's business. Miss Treadwell, who was 
often with the writer and his family in these 
happy experiences, says in a recent letter: 
"During the ten years of my service here, where 
laborers are few and the harvest great, I have 
known of no recruits who have brought us more 
light and joy and help than the author and his 
family; entering into all of our joys and sorrows 
they won the hearts of natives and foreigners. 
They did a great work. The MacFerren Me- 
morial Parsonage, which stands beside Mac- 
Donell Memorial Church here, as also our beau- 
tiful stone church in Torreon (the finest in the 
Republic owned by our Church), are monuments 
to their ability, consecration and zeal." (Mae 
Treadwell, apartado 103, Durango, Mexico, 
January 15, 1912.) 



30 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

Such expressions and letters from his pre- 
siding elder there, often begging him to return, 
causes the writer's heart to turn that way. In 
fact, his letter to Bishop Candler asking to be 
relieved of his work there on account of the ill- 
ness of his wife was a sad, sad day. 

Without the help of Miss Treadwell and Miss 
Tydings, two of the best among those who have 
labored in Mexico, the writer never could have 
succeeded with his work. And he and his family 
are indebted to them and many other kind 
friends in Mexico for their many, many kind- 
nesses. 



CHAPTER III. 
Hunting and Being Hunted, 



D 



T is said that all thinjs^s come to those 
who wait. There are two experiences 
that come to many American people in 
Mexico. One of them is a great delight and 
comes by choice, namely, to hunt; the other is a 
great distress and comes unbidden, namely, to 
be lost — to be hunted. It is easy to join the 
Esau, Nimrod & Roosevelt crowd when in a 
country full of wild beasts. 

Not long after the writer had taken charge of 
American work in Mexico one of his members, 
Mr. Boyles, who lived seventy-five miles away 
from his church out in the moun- 
Ofif to tains, invited his pastor out to see 

The Hills, him and take a hunt on the San 
Bias Ranch, in which he had an in- 
terest and superintended. It was a pleasant and 
i-xciting trip. Mr. Boyles sent his trusted over- 
seer, Jesus by name (most Mexicans have Bible 
names), after his pastor with animals sufficient 
for transporting the entire family. The trip was 



32 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

made in two days. Mrs. Tyler rode horse-back 
m the only manner possible (astride) through 
those mountains for the first time. Odette Tyler 
rode a burro (donkey) the entire way, slipping 
over his head twice going down the steep hills. 
All were tired outright on reaching San Bias. 
After two days of such experiences over hills 
and sleeping on the hard ground at night, San 
Bias was indeed a haven of rest. Mr. and Mrs. 
Boyles, one of the first families of Ohio, who 
had gone there to look after their ranch inter- 
ests, intelligent, consecrated Meth- 
San Bias, odists, made the preacher's family 
feel at home. Mrs. Boyles said, "I 
haven't been to church in two years, have seen 
so few Americans, but I am happy! I am doing 
Christian work among the natives on the ranch. 
We are out of touch with the world, sending 
only once every two weeks for the mail." 

The first night Mrs. Boyles with her pastor 
and his wife went down to a little hut on the 
ranch to visit a woman who was seriously ill. 
After administering to her physical necessities, 
dividing with her their medicine supply, the 
writer questioned her about her spiritual condi- 
tion. She knew only Mary, THE MOTHER 
OF GOD, but did not attribute to her Son 
jesus any honor or praise. Finding her in 



Hunting and Being Hunted 33 

almost a dying condition, the night was spent 
there praying with her and ministering to her. 
But when morning came she said to her family 
in her fanaticism and desperation that she was 
going to die and had to see a priest — that meant, 
of course, that they (her family) would carry her 
dead or alive to see one. They put her on a 
mule several times, but each time she would 
faint. Finally seeing that she could not sit up, 
they fastened a blanket to two poles and started 
with her to Durango seventy-five miles away, 
not to see a physician for an operation for ap- 
1 endicitis, but to have a priest bless her before 
she breathed her last!! In her desperation now, 
a Protestant even in presence could only harm 
her. So with men, money and medicine they 
were oflf to see the priest. 

Mr. Boyles and the writer with Jesus and his 
two pack-mules started out for a hunt. Mr. 
Boyles said, "Jesus, carry us to the spot where 
you killed the two black bears last 
First week; I want to show Mr. Tyler their 
Hunt. den, and maybe we will get the other 
ones you saw." It was the most ex- 
citing hour of this scribe's life. He had never 
killed a deer nor charged a bear's den, and even 
now a regular buck ague was on. After the first 
deer had been killed and some turkeys the 



?4 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

writer's nerves quieted down and he got in some 
good shooting, having killed five of the seven 
deer and one of the turkeys seen in our illustra- 
tion elsewhere. Every advantage, of course, had 
been accorded him. The writer will not under- 
take to describe the attack upon the bear's den; 
sufifice it to say that he did not always take ad- 
vantages which were offered him, finding it 
difficult to remain at a given stand still and long 
enough for the bear to put in his appearance. 
In fact, once having been given the best gateway 
to guard, on seeing the Mexican across the 
Canon motion that the bear was coming out at 
that gate, he found himself out of control of his 
legs which were walking off with him, feeling 
that the bear could be easily killed at a much 
greater distance (he had been warned that it 
would not do to wound the bear, but that it was 
necessary to kill him). If the animal came out 
by that gate it was not observed; possibly the 
moving around there had caused it to turn back 
as this hunter was beginning to hope it would do. 
The joke now was on Odette's daddy, as he had 
constantly teased her for being afraid of get- 
ting out of the house after having been shown 
an eagle's wings and claws that had been killed 
there a little while before while killing a colt, 
and which could easily have carried away a child. 



Hunting and Being Himted 35 

She did not only determine to remain inside, but 
was very much worried over having her burro 
exposed to such dangers. 

Next morning Jesus strapped five of the deer 
?nd some turkeys on two pack-mules and all 
mounted and started back to Durango expect- 
ing to overtake the parties carrying the woman 
on the stretcher. Strange to say the woman 
livd through the trip, was blessed by the priest, 
and got well; but it was the Protestant's bottle 
oi oil and not the blessing of the priest, as she 
thought that did the work. Possibly all com- 
bined. 

Two of the most impressive incidents in the 
life and experience of the author were being lost 
himself and searching for the lost. If the reader 

has never been lost it will be impossible 
Lost, to appreciate fully its meaning. The 

writer was lost — fearfully lost, while on a 
mission of mercy. He was one of a party carry- 
ing a desperate wounded man from a mine sev- 
eral days' journey to the city. One afternoon 
the patient suffered so intensely that it became 
necessary to strike camp about two o'clock. 
The doctor asked the writer to ride out a little 
Vsray from the Mazatlan Trail and kill something 
to eat. He had not gone far until he came across 
some turkeys and soon found that in following 



36 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

them he had lost his bearings. Every direction 
tried only brought disappointment, for in less 
than half a mile's distance a bottomless canon, as 
far as human eye could reach, stood in its awful 
ghastliness before him. To turn and try the op- 
posite direction was only to find within less than 
a mile a similar experience — stopping upon the 
edge of a precipice and looking down thousands 
and thousands of feet of perpendicular rock 
sides only to hear the moaning and sighing of 
the breezes among the rocks of the deep canon, 
the tumbling stones as they were turned over by 
the hands of the black bear searching for bugs 
and worms for an evening meal and the mourn- 
ful howling of the wolves like requiems over a 
lost world. After hours of fruitless effort the 
horse was finally given the reins for a trial that 
he seemingly had been wanting to make. He 
puckered up his ears and started out a new way 
and succeeded in going a little further than 
usual, but finally stopped and stuck his ears over 
a cliff that must have been two thousand feet 
straight up in the air. 

With horse and rider both completely pu-zzled 
and hemmed in a small place, with a deep canon 
i.11 around seemingly, out of hearing of all sig- 
nals, night already on, a desperate effort was 
made to find water, but in vain. The rider dis- 



Hunting and Being Hunted 37 

mounted to rest himself and animal, feeling that 
since he had not traveled very far, being hem- 
med in, he would be found early the next day, 
remembering at the same time that some Ameri- 
cans had been lost in there and never found. 

Before trying to sleep any, as had been his 
custom from early childhood, the rider looked up 
"to the hills from whence cometh all our help." 
About midnight the sky cleared 
Help up (it had been cloudy during 

From Above, the afternoon and night), and 
he took his bearings from the 
stars, mounted and started out straight to a 
star, knowing that unless an intervening canon 
stopped him the trail must be crossed not far 
from camp. Sure enough the evidently narrow 
neck of the trap was passed, and on and on 
until at last from the top of a high ridge the 
light of the camp could be seen straight on be- 
fore. Light signals were exchanged and later 
from the low lands rille shots, and soon camp 
was reached and all searchers called in. 

On another occasion during an exploration of 
a canon for Clif¥ Dwellers two of the party were 
lost from the guides and could not find their way 
to camp. They were out two days 
Searching and a night without water or food. 
For Lost. At night the writer directed the 



38 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

search, going with the guide to every high peak 
in the surrounding country, building bonfires and 
shooting, but with no success. No one lived in 
that wild country for hundreds of miles. The 
next day a wider search and a more desperate 
effort were made to find them, knowing that un- 
less they were found that evening they would 
likely lose their minds and run away from us 
into the canon if found. The guide finally gave 
up, saying that they could not be found, when 
something said to the writer who prayed for di- 
rection, ''Go on to the top of that great range 
of mountains." They were scaled and at three 
o'clock in the afternoon the lost were found- 
One of them was more or less composed but the 
other had gone to pieces. It looked at first dan- 
gerous to approach them, as they had their guns. 
In fact, after full recognition was effected and 
food and water administered, they were still en- 
raged with the guide and would have killed him 
but for the pleading of the writer that if they did 
so none of us would be able to find the way 
back to camp (which was true). 

A word of caution to all who go into the big 
woods: Never go without a native guide, and 
never risk yourself away from the guide even to 
do some small place. 



CHAPTER IV. 
Habits and C ii s torn s. 




HE peculiar customs of Mexico are full 

of interest to the average American, 

especially if he has never seen an adobt 

nor a well packed burro. Stepping over 

the border line from the United States, he 

seems at first to be walking in his sleep, the 

sights are so unreal and strange to him. 

The black-robed women, with shawled heads, 
the lagging, indolent men, lashing their half- 
starved horses into a forced trot over the rough 
cobbled streets of cities, conveying the 
In the better class to and from their business 
Street. points; the poor abused burros plod- 
ding the streets with burdens so heavy 
and so immense that only their little hoofs are 
visible beneath their heavy loads to assure one 
that they are real beasts and not automatic ob- 
jects moving along. Then the screeching of the 
cracked-voiced vender of ''dulces" (candies) on 
every corner; the lazy policeman in laundried 
white standing as motionless and almost as use- 



40 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

Jess as a barber pole; the sleepy mule of the 
street-car creeping along at a pace that an Amer- 
ican would scorn and walk on ahead; the scarcity 
of well dressed men and women in the streets 
and the monotonous sameness of the peculiar 
aress of the poor people, the bumping and jost- 
ling on the sidewalks, for one never knows which 
way a Mexican will turn, and they often take the 
entire walk, stopping in the midst of it to wave 
an "adios" to passing friends. It is strange to 
call out "goodbye" to persons along the street 
v/hom one has scarcely met. These and many 
other novel sights hold the attention of the 
.'American, when at last he is aroused from a 
dream by the tremendous clanging of the harsh 
and discordant bells of the cathedral. These 
bells hang high in the tower and are rung vigor- 
ously by men pulling ropes. They all clang to- 
gether, some ten or twelve, without time or 
rhythm or decent tone. Their principal object 
seems to be noise. They are rung many times a 
day to call the sinful passer-by to enter the 
church door, which stands open at all hours, 
and say his prayers to the Holy Mother. 

The most of the people when passing a church 
reverently lift their hats in respectful recognition. 
Many of their religious customs seem to 
be mere habit, vet to the Mexican they 



Habits and Customs 41 

Some have some significance, possibly. 

Religious But their slavish subjection to the 
Customs. priests is disgusting to the average 
American, as he sees the rag-tag of 
the town running along the streets kissing the 
hands of the priests as they hold them at a suffi- 
cient distance lest their fine robes should be 
soiled. And it is not always confined to the poor. 
1 have seen a rich and apparently well educated 
merchant leave his store and kneel down upon 
the sidewalk and repeatedly kiss the hands of a 
passing priest. 

All enter the church, both rich and poor, in 
S'mple raiment, the women with shawled heads, 
and devoutly in form perform their services. 

All through the year they observe many 

^'fiestas." The one of greatest importance is the 

Guadalupe Day, or Fiesta of Nuestra Sra de 

Guadalupe This is a week of re- 

Guadalupe ligious ceremony, when the great 

Day. pilgrimage takes place, and people 

far and near throughout the Re- 
public find their way to the place where is built 
the famous Church of Guadalupe in the sa- 
cred town of the same name. It is a suburb of 
the City of Mexico. The church is built on a hill 
overlooking a beautiful valley and surrounding 
mountains. It is shrouded in a kind of mystery 



42 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

which endears it to the superstitious and ig- 
norant people. 

They beheve in the old legend which tells how 
an Indian once crossing the mountain knelt to 
pray, and when calling upon the name of the 
Holy Virgin, she appeared to him 
Old and presented to him a bunch of 

Legend. flowers. He bowed himself humbly 
before her, but when he arose again 
she had disappeared but had left Eer photograph 
plainly imprinted upon his ''tilma" or loose 
cloak which he wore. He hurried to present his 
story and bunch of flowers to his priest, who 
blessed them, and priest and people were so 
aroused by this wonderful thing that they built 
a church upon the spot where the Virgin had ap- 
peared, and it has been a sacred shrine for pil- 
grim worshipers since that time. 

The Indian tillma has been preserved till this 
d.ay and may be seen in the church. A fac simile 
of that impression is tacked over nearly all the 
doors of the homes in the Republic 
Credence today, and some of the wisest of the 
Given people seem to think it simply a 

miraculous occurrence. This decept- 
ive miracle working way has often been the 
method of Rome. Anything to excite the people 
and make them pour out their abundant treasures 



Habits and Customs 43 

in the coffers of the Church. By this cieception 
iilone millions have been poured upon that spot — 
bleeding the people. The altar and railings of 
the church, it is said, are made of soHd silver. 
Great oil paintings hang upon the walls, and 
many other novel features make it an interest- 
ing place to visit. 

There is a quaint old cemetery on the hill near 

by this church, and here, as is their custom in all 

cemeteries on this day, the people take their 

families, and dressed in black they 

AH Saints' go to spend the day among the 

Day. g-raves in the cemetery, fasting, 

weeping and praying for departed 
souls. Many bring great candles, some five feet 
h^'gh, decorated in gilt, and place them burning 
at the head and foot of the graves. Natural and 
artificial flowers are also used in great profusion, 
and many symbols are placed upon the graves of 
their loved ones; but there seems to be no se- 
riousness connected with the affairs of the day, 
all of it being simply a picnic. 

Another "fiesta dia" of importance to the Mex- 
icans is the week preceding Easter Sunday, This 
is observed in the church by mass and mourning, 
with constant religious ceremonies, up 
Easter to Friday when the crucifixion took 
Week. place, then, leaving the church, the 



44 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

people rush into the streets with loud shout- 
ings and excitement and proceed to burn 
in effigy the body of the treacherous Judas. 

This is an image made of straw and dressed 
in a suit of clothes to resemble a man. It is car- 
ried through the streets with loud shriekings 

and mockings from the rabble that 
Burning follow close on the heels of the 
Judas. bearer. When a sufficiently large 

crowd has gathered to witness this 
spectacle, it is saturated with petroleum and 
hoisted on high, after which the frenzied mob 
fj.re upon it with well loaded pistols, thus setting 
it in a blaze. It wobbles feebly about in a pitia- 
ble manner, so realistic that, as they work them- 
selves up to a fury, they almost imagine it to be 
the real Judas. Finally, when it falls half burnt 
they rush upon it furiously and tear from it the 
entrails and strew them upon the ground, stamp- 
ing and cursing like madmen. When it is torn 
to shreds and stamped into the earth, with a tri- 
umphant yell they scattter through the streets 
and their sorrow is turned to rejoicing. Usually 
as a result of these protracted solemnities the 
solemn days are followed by drunkenness and 
revelry. Even the Day of Guadalupe, which is 
to them the purest and most sacred of all, is 
followed by a great reaction. 



Habits and Customs 45 

Christmas is not a feast day, but a day of 
prayer, and is not usually observed in any way. 
Christ is a very insignificant creature where 
Mary and saints are worshipped. 

Their minor feast days are the birthdays of 
the saints, and persons bearing the same name, 
as, for instance, John or Johanna (Juan or 
Juanna), celebrate the day of 
Minor their patron saint. They are 

Feast Days. given a party and friends and 
relatives enjoy the day with them. 
They are aroused early in the morning by strains 
of sweet music on harp and guitar and the sing- 
ing of carols; then the friends go from house to 
house, bringing gifts and congratulations 
through the entire day, adding to their number 
each time another name-sake of the saint. Wine, 
champagne and refreshments are served at each 
home, and guests must never refuse to partake 
of them; so they become quite merry as they go 
the rounds, and the evening is spent in dancing 
and merriment. 

The national sport of the Mexican, the "bull 
fight," is becoming well known. So much has 
been written of the professional fights, I will tell 
only of the amateur bull fighting. 
Bull Fights The week preceding this event is 
and one of great excitement, especially 

Cock Fights, among the young people, as it is 



46 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

well known that the young senors of the place, 
at least the clerks and employees of business 
houses, are to be the bull-fighters. 

The business men put their money up in much 
the same way as in horse racing. They bet large 
sums of money, from fifty dollars to five thousand 
dollars. The day of the bull fight, 
Much which is always on Sunday, the most 

Betting, elegant turnouts of the city are to 
be seen carrying to the game the in- 
terested senors and senoritas handsomely dress- 
ed for the occasion. 

The favorite senoritas, dressed in filmy, gauzy - 
and tinseled garments, with long white veils, oc- 
cupy the grand stand, as they have been chosen 
to be queens and must be prepared 

Queens to bestow upon these brave young 
Of Honor. heroes the badge of honor. The 
amphitheatre is crowded to the 
utmost; multitudes of brilliantly dressed peo- 
ple in plumes and ribbons await eagerly the 
coming of their friends. Presently when the 
music announces the entrance of the procession 
there is a momentary silence and the heroes 
come forth in all their glory, clad in their bril- 
liant colors of white and gilt, pink, blue or red, 
each color denoting some degree of rank in the 
game. They march proudly in; there are two 
mounted picadors for each matador; these and 



Habits and Customs 47 

the banderilleros all take their places in regular 
order, when with a call from the bugle the gate 
flies open and in trots a frightened 
The young bull, looking wildly about for a 

Fight. place of escape; he seems to think him- 
self in the wrong pasture, and is only 
too willing to escape without molesting any one. 
The youths advance without much fear, for the 
animal has had the sharp points of his horns 
sawed off and he seems as harmless as a big 
young dog. They begin waving the red cape to 
excite him to fight, but the poor frightened little 
fellow refuses to do anything but toss his head 
and trot to the fence in a vain efifort to jump it. 
When the picadors have succeeded in getting 
near enough to have the bull turn and gore 
t^eir blindfolded, helpless horse, the horse is 
dragged away and another takes his place. They 
have by this time stuck the poor bull full of 
poisoned hooked banderillas, so that he is frantic 
with pain, and fights with the blood streaming 
over his head and shoulders, until he becomes 
v^eak from the loss of blood and finally falls an 
easy victim to the cruel sword-thrust. He is also 
dragged out by mules, and another animal just 
as harmless and as helpless is turned into the 
ring. This is repeated until six bulls have been 



48 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

cruelly tortured to death in a manner too bar- 
barous to describe. 

Usually from four to six blindfolded horses are 
killed, and sometimes a two-legged animal. 
While the bull is being dragged away the band 
plays tumultously and the shouts of the crowd 
are deafening. The would-be bull-fighters, on 
entering the ring, march proudly up to the grand 
stand and receive from the queens a broad band 
of ribbon with artificial flowers attached, which 
is worn throughout the game, and often this 
blood-spattered rag is sold or kept as a souvenir 
by those who love to witness this barbarous 
spectacle. 

The amateurs are exactly like the professionals 
as to methods, except that the professional is 
out for business and the amateur for sport and 
charity, as they are gotten up often to increase 
the funds of a hospital or church building. The 
sale of tickets is large and the dead bulls are sold 
and given for food to the inmates of the hos- 
pitals, while in the professional fights each week 
the meat goes to the soldiers. 

A person who has never visited this country 
can scarcely imagine how strong a hold such a 
thing as a bull-fight can get on a peo- 
ple. The pens are crowded every Sunday 



o 

o 
o 






O 

o 



w^ 



Q 






A strange market. Selling images of Judas 
filled with iireworks for the purpose of being 
blown up. 




P2 


^«. 


P 




^ 


' ^ 


>-i 




ro 




OJ 




rj 




H— 1 




c+- 




o 




h-h 






Preparing- a Wayside Meal. 
(Author's family and some Missionary teaciiers.) 



Habits and Customs 49 

Hold on the entire year, in the main by 

The People, poor people who give a fifth of 
their week's salary to see the 
same thing over and over again. They have cul- 
tivated a thirst for seeing blood flow until they 
have no feeling for human blood. I noticed a 
crowd on coming out from a fight, when two 
men quarreled over the bet and cut each other 
?lmost in twain with long- knives that they nearly 
always carry (about twelve to eighteen inches 
long), stand oflf and laugh heartily at their writh- 
ing, bloody bodies in the streets. 

It is sad to see the young people being so 
wrongly educated in these amateur fights, but, 
I am sorry to say there are many Americans 
who regularly patronize the game, and who seem 
a«? fond of it as the Mexicans. It is a greater 
shame to them, for they have not been brought 
up in this atmosphere of barbarous cruelty, and 
should not so easily slip away from their better 
teaching. The cock fight is another popular 
game of the people. It is a betting game, attend- 
ed by men only, and many thousands of dollars 
are won or lost over these fights every Sunday. 

The ball of the better class of Mexicans is re- 
garded as a formal and important event. Here 
assemble the elite of both sexes. There are no 
introductions, the parties being supposedly a 



60 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

select company. The Senor- 
Social Customs — itas attend, escorted by 
The Ball. Mama or a chaperon; they 

take their places on one side 
of the room and the Senors on the other. When • 
the music begins, the gentlemen advance, pre- 
sent their cards to the ladies, the lady accepts 
graciously, as she must never refuse when in- 
vited to dance; she places her name upon the 
card by her partner's, and they enter the merry 
whirl. Probably not a word is spoken between 
them during the dance. There is a respectful 
and reserved demeanor between them, until the 
banquet; then after partaking of champagne and 
wine the conversation and merriment begin. 

The Mexicans are very much like the French 
in their love of outward display, showy equip- 
ages, dressing, and hours spent upon the boule- 
vard or promenade. Their "paseo" 
Plazo of the City of Mexico is a scene of 

and Paseo. brilliancy which can be appreciated 
only when seen. They drive in the 
cool of the evening, and far into the night. The 
ladies usually in company with other ladies, the 
gentlemen with gentlemen friends. 

Senoritas are dressed in the daintiest of fabrics 
and colors, and their gowns and hats are often 
imported from Paris, They and the matrons who 



Habits and Customs 51 

accompany them have the most feminine 
Dress, of wearing apparel, and wear it as a 
queen wears her jewels, gracefully, and 
as though it were an outward expression of 
their love of femininity and beauty. No Mexican 
Miss ever rode astride or did anything at all 
masculine. 

There are many beauties to be seen on these 
drives, and it is one of the customs of the city 
+o drive through the length of the boulevard and 
back again, thus travelling many miles over the 
same street, sitting back at ease, to be admired 
by a vast throng of gentlemen lined up on either 
side the "paseo," who stand gaping or bowing 
as the coaches pass, and even sometimes using 
opera glasses for closer observation even at 
close range, which is embarrassing to the Se- 
norita who is a stranger to these gentlemen, and, 
of course, not there to be admired. She is only 
taking her evening drive with Mama, and has 
never thought of a man! For Mama has 
brought her up to think she must never be seen 
in company with one, nor ever speak to one upon 
the street, except to give a bow or ''adois" at a 
distance. 

But there is another way known to the young 
people whereby they may become better ac- 
quainted: a very peculiar way for well pro- 
tected young girls, I must say. I have 



52 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

Plaza seen these crowds of people so 

Promenade, closely packed in the promenade 
that often they have to come to a 
stand-still, being unable to advance another step. 
Sometimes in these mix-ups the Senoritas, 
among others, are rudely jostled and glared at by 
a mongrel mixture of Mexicans, Chinese, Cre- 
oles, Japanese — anything that chanced to make 
ftp a part of the mass — and are sometimes in- 
sulted right in the presence of their anxious 
chaperones. 

These plazas are usually laid out with band- 
stand in the center, brilliantly lighted, and a 
preen park of trees and flowers, with fountains 
and statues to make it an attractive place. The 
music of the Mexican band allures everybody to 
the promenade. The men take the outside and 
the women the inside, and here they promenade 
in opposite directions, facing each other. In 
this way many little flirtations go on unobserved 
by the average person, and many a coquet makes 
a conquest here and brings captive to her win- 
dow a sighing lover. 

When a fellow admires a certain young lady 

he will slip into her hand as they pass in the 

promenade some little token, usually a flower, 

sometimes a note. If she wishes 

Courtship, to encourage him, she afterwards 

sends him a little missive by mail. 



Habits and Customs 53 

and he answers by appearing on the outside of 
her iron-grated window, where she awaits him in 
fi^my laces, flowers and perfumes, and there in 
the moonlight 'neath the flickering shadows of 
the peppers and the sheltering fans of the palms, 
h? softly murmurs his fond dream, or tinkles 
gently on his guitar a lover's song expressing 
his own feelings of hope or fear. This window 
courtship the audacious American has bluntly 
named "playing the bear." When the Senorita 
has told her careful Mama, and if Mama approves 
of the Senor, they may correspond. In a few 
months they may become engaged, after which 
the maiden is supported by her lover. The en- 
gagement present is a bracelet, although the 
ring is also placed upon her hand at the wedding, 
/.fter this novel courtship, during which time the 
lover has never been admitted to the home of 
the maiden, the marriage takes place. 

They are married at the home of the bride by 
a civil judge. Relatives and friends are in- 
vited guests. A wedding supper is served and 

marriage gifts presented. The 
Marriage. bride receives a dower of from fifty 

to thousands of dollars from the 
groom in silver. The next morning, after a 
n'ght of dancing and music, the ceremony is per- 
formed by the priest at the church, just before 
daybreak. They are now consecrated to the 



64 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

church by mass and prayer. This wedding is 
oublic, and persons interested may attend. The 
ceremony sometimes lasts two hours, during 
which the couple are upon their knees before the 
altar. 

The marriage is followed by feasting and danc- 
ing, which lasts from one to eight weeks. They 
sometimes go upon a wedding tour, when upon 
their return they immediately set up house- 
keeping. 

The home life among the better class of Mex- 
icans is, to them, ideal. The husband is a good 
provider, and the wife very domestic in her tastes 
and content to remain in the home, 
Domestic looking after her family — her first and 

Life. only duty. She takes little part in so- 

cial afifairs, but gives her almost undi- 
vided attention to her husband and children. 
Although the authority of the husband is su- 
preme, and he is in truth her ^'lord and master," 
she can, with tact, very nearly have her own way 
in matters of her household. She eeps servants 
galore; they are cheap, and she is simply to be a 
jxood manager, and her domestic machinery will 
move along smoothly. Their families are usually 
large, being from six to twelve children, and the 
husband requires nothing of his wife except to 
keep beautiful and be true to him (not universally 



Habits and Customs 55 

obeyed, but truer to him than he is to her), and 
rear his children well. 

The aim of every Mexican mother is to guard 

her children from evil, especially her girls, whom 

she keeps very close to herself, and 

Parental very early surrounds them with the 

Training. influence of religion (an object 

lesson for Americans.) 

The maidens usually follow in the footsteps of 
their mother; they are taught the religion of 
their forefathers, while yet in the cradle; and 
later are so carefully chaperoned that they have 
little chance to become perverse; besides they are 
for the most part naturally docile and reserved. 
And when they marry, as they generally do, very 
young, they expect to retire from society, and are 
content to give their entire attention to their 
homes under the security, protection and love 
that satisfies. 

The divorce question is scarcely ever raised 
among them, as it is looked upon as a disgrace, 
pi)d the church forbids it. So their lives move 
on, peacefully for the most part, and 
Divorce, if their lord (the husband), because 
he is lord of his household, shows a 
little superiority now and then, it does not mat- 
ter with his wife, as she looks upon him as her 
superior, and leans upon him as a dependent. 

The Mexican mother is extremely, even fool- 



56 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

ishly indulgent. She can scarcely school herself 
to say no, which seems to her a very harsh word 
to use to a child. She has very 
No Force sentimental notions concerning 
of children, and creates much trouble 

Character, for herself because of them, for 
children will take advantage wher- 
ever they discover weakness. She admits, if she 
talks English, that she is too ''soft" with them, 
meaning "easy." And when she has taken them 
over the baby period, she still continues to look 
upon them as babies, until at last, realizing her 
mistake, she often employs an American gov- 
erness to teach them more practical methods 
and ideas. 

When they are in their first teens, she usually 
places them in a convent school, frequently in 
the United States, for better education. Yet 
they spend much time at home with their 
mother. 

Unfortunately, the boy is not so carefully rear- 
ed as his sister. He is made to feel that being a 
boy, he may have more freedom, even license. 
He, therefore, roams about and in- 
Boys. dulges in things that he would be bet- 
ter off without. And even if he grows 
to be a man of impure morals, it is looked upon 
very lightly and excused by home and society 
s-mply because he is a man. And so it often 



Habits and Customs 67 

happens that the devoted and domestic little wife, 
who gives her entire life and love to her home 
and family, is often deceived by her unworthy 
lord; but rarely does she know, or appear to 
know, that he is other than wholly true to her. 
This home relationship is not so happy and sat- 
isfactory among the poor, the masses of the peo- 
ple. Few of them are married — were not able to 
marry under Romish rule. Some live together 
happily, some fall out and pair off with others. 
C)ften the woman supports her husband by tak- 
ing in washing. They live in a loose way. In 
fact, it is difficult to cultivate virtue where a 
family of fifteen have to live in a room fifteen feet 
square without a chair, bed, table, back corral, or 
anything, like half of them do. 

The Mexicans frequently marry among their 
relatives. Very often cousins marry, and now 
and then an uncle and niece will become lovers 
and finally marry. This is done to 
Marrying keep the family name and inheritance 
Relatives and is not looked upon as evil in 
any. In fact, it is often planned by 
the parents for their children from babyhood. 

There is a constantly growing tendency, how- 
ever, for the Mama to consent to an American 
"e s p o s o" (husband) for her daughter, who 
considers it quite an honor to win the 



^jaSiyvV'.rsvv.'.' 



58 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

Marriage love of "im Americano"; but Mama 
with takes care to see that he has a 

Americans, good bank account or mining 
stock, so these marriages now are 
not infrequent, especially if the American re- 
mains some time in Mexico without returning to 
the United States. 

Mexico's business habits and customs weary 
an American. The whole thing looks like play. 
Everywhere, in shop, factory, office or store, no 

one seems to pay mucli attention to 

In his business, nor seerns to care very 

Business, much whether he does any business 

or not. If you go in a store to pur- 
chase an article the clerk will come to you and 
shake hands with you and ask you all about the 
health of your family, etc. When you get his at- 
tention turned to his goods he acts as if he 
thought that if he sold you anything it would be 
a great accommodation— a special favor to you- 
There is no use to get mad and go to the next 
.^tore, for you will only have to repeat all the 
first again. It is the same way in the offices. 
If you buy a piece of property it will take much 
time and cost enormously to close the deal and 
fix the papers. 

Office hours throughout the country are gen- 
erally from 9 a. m. to 12 m. and from 3 to 5 p. m. 



Habits and Customs 69 

All stores generally close two or three hours in 
midday. It takes them over an 
Short hour to eat, and then the 

Office Hours, "siesta" (nap) after dinner is 
more important than the din- 
ner. They also have a holiday every week or 
two, and sometimes one or two, and even three 
in one week. Stores and offices are closed so 
much until you can't tell when you can get in 
without going to see. After all, the Mexican 
idea in this may be wiser than that of the am- 
bitious American. No doubt the hustle and rush 
of business have cut oflf the happiness and length 
of many a life. 

It is a peculiar thing that the Mexican will 

give the last quarter he has to ride across town 

or get a boy to carry his satchel a few steps. 

One of otat preachers borrowed 

Won't Walk enough money to get to a confer- 

Nor Work, ence, first gave a boy twenty-five 

cents to carry his one little grip 

to the hack, then the cochero fifty cents to drive 

him across a few blocks, and then a cargador 

twenty-five cents to put it on the train; he then 

bought a second class ticket! Americans all carry 

their own grips and buy first class tickets. Clerks 

will work all day for a dollar and give half of 

that to the cochero to drive them across three 

blocks home and back. 



60 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

Nearly everybody smokes cigarettes, women 

and all. In fact, there are very few women, 

especially among the lower class, who do not 

smoke. Mexicans, however, never, 

Smoking never chew tobacco. The most of the 

and men drink, and it is a common oc- 

Drinking. ctirrence to see women drunk. Al- 
cohol is cheap and there is a cantina 
Hittle saloon) on almost every corner. Mexican 
pfiople as a rule are not so boisterous and dan- 
p^erous when drinking and drunk as Americans. 
A man is much safer walking around at night in 
Mexico than in the United vStates. The reason is 
not that the Mexican people are better morally, 
but are simply indiflferent — never planning nor 
scheming nor caring about anything. They have 
no individuality, and that makes you or your 
f?mily safe most anywhere in Mexico. — much 
more so than among Southern Negroes. 

It is providential that the poor can get for a 
few cents all they seem to care to eat: beans and 
mashed hominy, pepper and goat milk. They 
a^e not only satisfied with a six-cents meal of this 
kind, but the providential thing is that these 
cheap articles are strengthening and they can 
v/ork year by year on them. And so they are not 
caring nor thinking. Thev are content to let 
others do that for them. 



Habits and Customs 61 

"What is the use to worry, 

Until you have to pay? 
We let the gringo hurry — 

It's better to delay. 
W^hat is the use to borrow 

Of trouble far away? 
Come, put off till tomorrow 

What you can do today. 

"What will be surely will be 

To make the what-has-been. 
Our languid eyes can still see 

What comes may come again. 
Ah venga una cigarro, 

Is ours the hand to pay? 
No, put off till tomorrow 

What can be done today. 

"Then let us lie together 

Like lizards in the sun — 
As lazy as the weather — 

And dream of deeds undone. 
Such thoughts need not bring sorrow, 

But rather smooth the way 
To put off till tomorrow 

What can be done today." 



APTKR \. 



Bdiicatic:. ' System and Progress 



isa 



ri!WO has not bei^n altogether lacking 
lU her txiucational facilities. Niuety 

years before the landing of the HI- 

i:ni\v> .11 Plymouth Kock ^lexico had her "liar- 
yard"; tor eight years after the City of ^lexico 
fell into the hands of the conquering Spaniards 
(1521) the.o \\\is founded there the CoHegt^ ot 
San Juan de l.etran. In the year 157^; the colle.aces 
oi San llregorio and San IJdefonso n\ cMc^ found- 
c\l. rUe latter has been modernised into tho 
Xaiional Preparatory School, In the Urst sixi\ 
tive years of the historv of Xt^w 
Anttqiiitv Spain (Mexico'* sovcti soaas ot 
L^t Sa'a.vV.s higher learning were estabUshed. 
In Mexico. Mexico City was spoken of as the 
**Athens" of thu^ Now \\\m'.v!. 
producing men and women of brpad learning, in 
some instances Hke Don Juan Ruiz Alarcon and 
Juana Tno - uo la Cvxxz. The first medical v^chool 
estabhsh.cd m the ?\ew World discovered by Ov^ 
lumbus \\'as n chair of medicine in the UniversuN 
of ^lexico in t!\c year 1578. It doubtless would 
have been established earlier but for tbe fact that 



64 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrozv 

medical men had not been considered men of 
true science. 

Throughout the several hundred years of 
Spanish rule, French intervention, revolution and 
civil commotion, schools shut down and opened 

up from time to time, and 
Good Modern after the smoke of the suc- 

Schools on Sites cessful revolution cleared 
Of the Old. away, still greater schools 

sprang up out of the ruins of 
the old. The building occupied by the first uni- 
versity in America (1551) is now occupied by the 
National Conservatory of Music. Where Fray 
Pedro de Gante founded the first common school 
in America (1524) now the National Academy of 
Art (Ancient Academy of San Carlos) stands. 
The National Preparatory School is now situated 
at the old Jesuit College of San Lldefonso, built 
in 1749 at a cost of $400,000. The old home of 
the Inquisition, built in the year 1732, with its 
four famous hanging arches at the corners, was 
converted into the National College of Medicine 
when Independence put out of business the Holy 
^■'Colegio de la Paz" (College of Peace), better 
Office in America. There is a fine military school 
located on the grounds of Chepultepec. The old 
known as the "Viscainas/' founded in 1734 at a 
cost of two millions, has been converted into an 
establishment for the education of young women. 



Bducational System and Progress 65 

The School of Mines and Engineering is located 
in the splendid building of Chiluca, built by Tolsa 
in 1793 at a cost of three millions. The Royal 
Mint, erected in the year 1731 at a cost of one 
million, is now the National Museum; while the 
famous old Church of San Augustin is now the 
National Library with more than 200,000 vol- 
umes, 

Humbold said as late as 1824, "No city of the 
New Continent, not excepting those of the 
United States of America, present scientific es- 
tablishments so great as those of the capftal of 
Mexico." Of course that could not be said now. 

Mexico's mistake in education seems to have 
been in putting too much stress on simply tech- 
nical training, teaching boys and girls to do pro- 
fessional work mechan- 
More Common and ically, without any good 

Industrial Schools and common school educa- 
Fewer Technical. tion as a basis or man- 

ual training. And the 
result is, the country is full of doctors and law- 
yers and all kinds of professional men with no 
one to practice on. As soon as one is sent to 
school he at once becomes a professional man, 
leaving none in the common file and rank but 
the absolutely ignorant and poor. 

That ereat Mexican leader that comes forth 
to teach the upper class how to harden their 



66 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

hands will confer an everlasting benediction upon 
the Mexican commonwealth. But, possibly, 
such an undertaking has seemed 
Hard Hands so far such a stupendous task 
Versus that it has been thought easier 

Hard Heads, to prepare to sharpen the in- 
tellect and wake up the senti- 
ments of those who by nature have been forced 
to hard hands. And so the Federal Congress of 
Mexico passed a law in 1896, which was promul- 
gated on June 3rd of the same year, placing^ pub- 
lic education under the control of the govern- 
ment and forcing all children to attend. Since 
that date Mexico has been giving her atttenion 
to the education of the common people, who are 
her real strength and power. 

And so today Mexico's interest in popular ed- 
ucation really amounts almost to a reformation. 
In this new phase of her educational activity is 
seen one of her brightest stars of 
The Hope hope. No nation can remain weak 
Of Mexico. and insignificant if she educates 
her common people. Today some 
of the most splendid normal schools to be found 
anywhere on the American Continent are being 
inaugurated in Mexico. These schools are being 
furnished with the best equipment that money 
can buy and the most competent teachers that 
can be secured, Many of these have been edu- 



Educational System and Progress 67 

cated in foreign countries and are well equipped 
for their work. The young Christian men and 
women who complete their course in our Church 
normal schools are always in demand in these 
State institutions. The results of these thousands 
of boys and girls sitting at the feet of trained 
Christian leaders cannot be estimated. Tlie pos- 
sibilities for a greater statehood, stronger gov- 
ernment, and a wider usefulness are great. No 
character thus trained and enlightened can 
easily be narrow and little. And schools like 
these, manned by broad, liberal Christian char- 
acters is, and will be more and more the best in- 
dication of Mexico's greatness. 

Mexico h.is not simply put her money in these 
magnificent buildings and furnished well equip- 
ped teachers, but forces all children between the 
ages of seven and eighteen to at- 
Compulsory tend. Each child, therefore, 
Education. v/hether rich or poor, is being 
taught to read and write, an ac- 
complishment which their parents rarely at- 
tained. 

The public school system is worked out on 
plans similar to those of the United States, ex- 
cept that the schools for boys and girls are 
almost always separate. The course 
System. of study extends from the first to the 
sixth grade? the grades having about 



68 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

the same significance as in the States. The plan 
is to be thorough. No child is allowed to pass 
to a higher grade without having passed a sat- 
isfactory examination in the lower grade. The 
discipline is rigid, although the rod is not allow- 
ed by law. Other methods, commonly known 
among all people, are used freely. The police- 
man and jail for the school is a method used often 
and effectively. Keeping in after school hours 
and standing in the corner are the methods most 
commonly used. This splendid public school sys- 
tem, built up in recent years, promises to be one 
of the most potent factors in developing a broad 
and liberal citizenship by implanting in the minds 
and hearts of the rising generation the great 
principles of freedom of conscience and liberty of 
speech and action so essential in a land cursed 
with Popish serfdom and ecclesiastical bigotry. 
Realizing to the fullest extent this priestly 
slavery, and that the emancipation of mind was 
among the first things needed in Mexico, all the 
evangelical denominations that have 
Mission gone there to do missionary work be- 
Schools. gan at once to establish great institu- 
tions of learning. And it is well to 
state that the missionary effort there is not in- 
truding. The workers are there by invitation 
from Mexican gentlemen high up in Mexican 
affairs, and the good work goes on with their 



Bducatioml System and Progress 69 

highest approval. Hon. Enrique Creel, Governor 
of the State of Chihuahua, and Ambassador to 
the United States (1908), whom I count it an 
honor to number among my personal friends, is 
a gentleman of the highest order, and is not too 
big nor too little to visit our own church school, 
'•Colegio Palmore," and make the commence- 
ment address and deliver the diplomas. With 
encouraging and complimentary words as well 
as with cold cash he is commending our work to 
his countrymen. This Palmore College, situated 
in the city of Chihuahua, the capital of the State 
of the same name, was estabhshed in the year 
1890 by our Woman's Foreign Mission Board. 
The school, under the efficient management of 
Miss Lizzie Wilson, has turned out preachers, 
teachers, and sucessful business men and women 

of various vocations and pro- 
Graduates of fessions. The young men and 
Mission Schools women that graduate in the 
In Demand. professional department, as 

well as in other departments, 
are in demand, the president having many more 
calls than she has been able to fill for equipped 
young m^en and women. This school has enroll- 
ed some years nearly one thousand pupils. What 
has been said of this school can be said of many 
more. The Methodist Episcopal Church, South, 
alone has successful schools in the cities of Du- 



70 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

rango, Saltillo, San Luis, Monterey, Pueblo, 
Guadalajara, Chihuahua and Mexico City. Other 
denominations are represented in all the cities of 
any size, and all have wisely begun in the school 
room. These Christian institutions of learning 
are giving scores and hundreds of young men 
and women the full state course together with 
the business and Christian training that is need- 
ed in building up honorable and successful busi- 
ness enterprises. These young people go out to 
fill those lucrative positions that await them and 
at the same time unconsciously diffuse the know- 
ledge of Truth and Light among those with 
whom they come in contact. 

The proportional growth in Protestant schools 
is phenomenal. A study of the following statis- 
tics for the years of 1876 and 1903 as given by 
Mallen's "Mexico," is interesting. You will note 

that the Protestants had 
Growth of climbed from one-twentieth to 

Mission Schools, one-third — an increase that is 

marvelous in a Catholic coun- 
try. And when you take into consideration that 
the majority of the thousands in these special 
schools and public schools are Protestants at 
heart, the argument of a predicted landslide for 
Evangelical Christianity is strengthened. 



Educational System and Progress 71 





1876. 






Cath. 


Prot. Priv. Public, 


Primary schools 


103 


10 797 4542 


Pupils, male 


3861 


271 I 1367 101748 


Pupils, female 


2779 


137 8031 48981 


Secondary schools 


24 


I 8 173 


Pupils, male 


1389 


65 217 10654 


Pupils, female 




1903. 


20 3316 


' 


Cath. 


Prot. Priv. Public. 


Primary schools 


332 


102 I 155 9546 


Pupils male 


15229 


2970 27919 383381 


Pupils, female 


108 1 1 


5473 24127 248134 


Secondary schools 


37 


23 44 351 


Pupils, male 


15229 


2970 27919 383381 


Pupils, female 


497 


421 559 16446 



This table was prepared under the authority 
and direction of the Mexican government for the 
World's Fair and Exhibition of the Centennial 
of the Louisiana Purchase, held in St. Louis in 
1904. For that reason, although a little old, it is 
given here as being entirely trustworthy. The 
same rapid increase of Protestants over Catholics 
has gone on these other years, only more rapid- 
ly, until a safe estimate would be half. 

The Mexican mind is not dull. The children 



72 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

like to attend school and they make good stu- 
dents. The ignorance prevalent among them is 
more the result of the teaching 
Mexican Mind of Romanism and the need of 

Is Apt. an opportunity than from any 

indisposition on the part of the 
people to learn. And so, as these public schools 
and church institutions are opened up on every 
hand, and since the compulsory law has been put 
into effect for the last few years, a much larger 
per cent, not only attend school, but they are 
making marvelous strides of progress. In fact, 
the Mexican mind seems to be apt in grasping 
theories. As a rule it is more theoretical than 
practical. 

With this natural endowment and gift in learn- 
ing, together with all the advantages that Mex- 
ico has today to enlighten the common people, 
they are sure to rise to their op- 
Opportunities portunities. The Protestant de- 
Increasing, nominations are extending their 
assistance through all their edu- 
cational plants, and this is being seen and appre- 
ciated more and more by the Mexican people, 
The public schools, their thousands of news- 
'papers, their hundreds of public libraries with 
their hundreds of thousands of volumes, their 
large number of museums for scientific and edu- 
cational purposes, and several meteorological in- 



Educational System and Progress 73 

stitutions give help today to the Mexican mind 
that has never been enjoyed before. 

They not only have all advantages today, but 
their ideals are high. Their leaders, the states- 
men, realize that a commonwealth built upon anv 
other foundation than that of 
Mexican Ideal a righteous and intelligent cit- 
Not Low. izenship is built upon sinking 

sand, and that the perpetuity 
and growth of the repubhc depend upon 
the enUghtenment of the masses, an in- 
teUigent love of country and conception of 
the proper relationship they bear towards each 
other, their own government as well as foreign 
lands and people. 

The masses of the people do not realize any 
social obligations whatever. Aside from divid- 
ing a meal with one hungry, which is one re- 
deeming trait among them, some seem to feel 

that they have a perfect right 
Do Not Know to take anything from an- 
Rights of Men. other as long as they can do 

it secretly. They do not seem 
to have any conscience on the subject at all. It 
is largely the lack of education. They do not 
understand their rights one towards another. 
The writer has on several occasions been com- 
pelled to buy over and over articles that have 
been stolen from him. One day in talking with 



74 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

a pawnbroker, it dawned upon him that the man 
really believed it one's duty to repurchase all 
articles that were secretly taken from him. It 
is said that these pawnbrokers often keep men 
and boys employed gathering up these things. 
The writer believes that this mania among the 
Mexican poor for taking things that do not be- 
long to them is not so much a moral defect as 
an intellectual difficulty. They simply do not 
have a proper conception of the rights of pos- 
session in many cases. 

As the masses of the ignorant poor are edu- 
cated to a realization of their reasonable duty to 
themselves, their God, and their fellow men, will 

the soil be prepared and en- 
Must be Taught riched in which all the Christ- 
To Think Right, like virtues grow. '^Fcr as a 

man thinketh in his heart 
so is he." When they begin to think right they 
will do better. It is true that the difficulty is not 
generally found in not knowing, but in failing to 
do as well as we know. But among the masses 
of the ignorant in Mexico a telescope is what is 
needed. They have been hoodwinked and driven 
long enough. What they want now is an "eye- 
opener — a text book, blackboard, a righteous 
lecture. 

The Mexican government realizes this great de- 
ficiency and today thousands of school houses 



Educational System and Progress 75 

and teachers are telling the masses they have 
minds and rig^hts. The country is 
Mind aroused to the fact that her defence 

Investment is not in a forced soldiery of ex- 
A Great convicts, not in bayonets and in 

Defense. guns, but in brains — material and 

intellectual development. The 
growth along this line for the last few years has 
been wonderful. But Mexico will never rise to 
her true greatness until she goes a step further 
tlian that. 

The wrecks of dismembered nations that built 
upon foundations like that, lie thick in the path 
of the past. Material greatness and intellectual 
power cannot win without moral 
History worth. The warning finger of history 
Warns. points us to the once magnificent city 
of Babylon, whose ruins today are 
the home of the bat and owl and are the shelter 
of wild beasts whose doleful howls warn us 
against indolence, licentiousness, and vice. 
Proud Rome, once the mistress of the world, 
fell in the very zenith of her glory, and has not 
yet risen out of her material luxury, social 
degradation and immoral religion. 

But the history of the past is also full of ex- 
amples of a glorious civilization. There is illus- 
trious Greece, whose art, literature, culture and 



76 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

refinement have made her 
Soul Investment the pride of the historian, 
Greatest Defence, the subject of artists, and the 
History lyric bard. And today the 

En,courages. songs of her Homer, the elo- 

quence of her Demosthenes, 
and the philosophy of her Plato are murmuring 
gentle requiems to the memory of a nation that 
was made famous by moral and intellectual de- 
velopment. But for an example of true soul- 
worth look at England, look at America, where 
the Pilgrim Fathers dedicated the soil to the 
treedom of conscience and religious thought. 
Look to the great characters of the Reformation : 
Luther, Zwingle, WyclifTe, Latimer, Knox, and 
to those of later developments : The Wesleys and 
Whitfield, the fiery, fervent prayers, songs and 
sermons of those immortal Christian characters 
woke up the sentiments of nations, teaching them 
that their chief defence was not in material great- 
ness — not in guns and good gunners, not in ships 
and swords, nor yet in free schools, but in soul- 
investment. These high ideals and inspire'd songs 
of those grand old heroes and prophets cannot 
die so long as there are any hearts to love them, 
any lips to sing their praises, any lives to live, 
and any nation to build upon them. They shall 
not die! 



Educational System and Progress '77 

^'On fame's eternal camping ground 

Their silent tents are spread, 
And glory guards with solemn round 
The bivouac of the dead." 

But where is '^fame's eternal camping ground," 
may I ask? In the hearts of the people, and un- 
til a nation strikes at the heart and soul it will 
not find its chief defence. 

God speed the glorious day when Mexico, with 
the other Christian nations of the earth, shall 
teach the common people, not only that they have 
minds, but that they have souls 
Bible Rule also! From an open Bible, God's 
Of Right great Law and Rule of Con- 
duct to man, on the ^esk, let 
her teachers tell them of God and of the 
divine demands upon them, and thus she 
will build fortifications about her right- 
eous nation and people that swords cannot de- 
stroy. One song of Charles Wesley on the lips 
and in the life of an humble citizen of any nation 
will make him a safer subject and neighbor than 
all the codes on the statute books of the land. 
'Xet me make the songs for the children and T 
care not who makes the laws of the land.' 
(Quien Sabe): 



78 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

Christian influence planted and endowed the 
great universities of the past. It will continue to 
wield its influence in every happy land of the uni- 
verse. Our Harvard (1638) 
Early Schools the first great university 

Founded on founded among the colo- 

Christian Principles, nies, was founded by a 

minister, John Harvard, 
who gave half of his estate to it. One of the first 
rules of that school was: "Let every student be 
plainly instructed and earnestly pressed to con- 
sider well that the main end of his life and studies 
is to know God and Jesus Christ, which is eternal 
life, and therefore to lay Christ in the bottom as 
the only foundation of all sound knowledge and 
learning." They put on the college seals, ''In 
Gloriam Christum" and ^'Chri^to et Ecclesiae." 
Yale (1700) the next great university, was 
founded by Protestant Church influences, and you 
will find in the preamble of their colonial charter 
noble words like these: "Several well-disposed 
and pubHc-spirited persons, of their sincere regard 
to and zeal for upholding and propagating of the 
Christian Protestant Religion by a succession of 
learned and orthodox men who have expressed 
by petition their earnest desires that full libertv 
and privilege be granted unto certain undertakers 
for the founding of, suitable endowment, and 
ordering a suitable Collegiate School within hi.^ 



Educational System and Progress 79 

Majesty's Colony of Connecticut, who through 
the blessings of Almighty God may 5e fitted for 
public employment both in Church and Civil 
State!" For more than a hundred years both of 
these schools had at their heads ministers of the 
gospel. 

And so were the colleges of William and Mary, 
Princeton, Columbia, Hampden Sydney, Brown, 
Rutgers and Dartmouth, founded by Protestant 
churches. In fact, the colleges of the land have 
been born out of Protestant Faith and Hope; 
Protestant soil is where they grow and prosper. 
Education is not narrow. It does not fetter 
thought, but emancipates mind. It does not im- 
pede investigation, but flings wide the doors of 
mental hospitality, and gives the broadest com- 
mission to intermeddle with all knowledge." — 
(Bishop Charles B. Galloway in his '^Christianity 
and the Nation.") 

Just as the great institutions of learning In the 
United States of America have sprung from a 
liberal Christian Protestantism, and vice versa; 
just as these same institutions have taught and 
promulgated these same high and righteous 

tenets will institutions of 
Protestant Faith learning grow out of and 

Means Schools, strengthen the Protestant 

And Good Schools cause in the Republic of 



80 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

Mean More Mexico. As Protestantism 

Protestants. develops and grows will 

splendid Christian schools 
be fottnded, and all these Christian institutions 
will have a reflexive, healthy influence on Protest- 
ant Evangelism. Schools must be broad as well as 
high in their teaching. None of the high schools 
of the Roman Catholic Church are really broad. 
No doubt there are thousands turning from their 
schools because of their narrowness and entering 
the public schools. This is to be deplored. Not 
that the liberal education of the public schools 
is inferior to that received in the Catholic schools, 
for it is not, but it is always a pity for the Church 
to turn over to the State the education of her 
children. 

Somebody must educate. If the Church won't 
the State must. The restless, blinded, staggering, 
naturally unsatisfied multitudes want a guide. 

The Church oughOo 
Duty and Opportunity answer that c a 1 1. 
Of Church in Education. There never was such 

an opportunity for the 
Church of God in an educational field as presents 
itself in Mexico today. And never was there such 
a responsibility. Of all periods of the world's 
history, today is a dangerous day to educate out 
from under the Church. It is a day of uncertainty 
and doubt— a day when old doctrinal standards 



Educational System and Progress 81 

are attacked and subject to repudiation. Many- 
are uneas)^ as to the certainty and stability of our 
social order; while some are striking at the foun- 
dation of the home, the granite rock upon which 
rests all government. The laboring class as well 
as the capitalists are distrustful one of the other. 
It is a transitional period. The antagonism of 
classes and races, the v/ant of confidence between 
man and man, show the discontent of the day. 

What is needed is something that the State is 
not giving, and the Catholic Church not only re- 
fusing to teach but hiding and concealing. We 
'must put the Bible Creed in the hearts and lives 

of the people. We want on 
Bible Must be the lips of the capitalist, 

Taught in Schools. ''Thou shalt not oppress the 

hireling in his wages nor 
disregard the interests of the poor and the la- 
borer." Then we want on the lips and in the lives 
of the laborers, ''Thou shalt do no violence and 
wrong." Then upon the lips of all concerned, 
"Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." 
To implant this in the lives of the people, 
the Church must teach the children. Let us 
rise to our duty ! Prophetic voices are sounding 
through the land, "The kingdom of heaven is at 
hand! Today is the day of salvation." God's 
voice can yet be heard crying, out of heaven to a 
terinsr Church, ^*Go forward!" The murmur-' 



h2 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

ings of the oppressed, discontented and immoral 
thousands of those who wander in moral midnight 
is but God's voice still calling through the 
prophet to the Church of God, "Arise, shine, and 
the Gentiles shall come to thy Hght, and kings 
to the brightness of thy rising." 




CHAPTER VL 

Resources, Natural and Commercial 

EXICO'S natural and commercial re- 
sources are abundant. Of the natural 

resources we begin with the location of 

the country itself. Being so close to the Panama 
Canal, or the very center of the world, it is a most 
important land. 

Mexico is in the shape of a cornucopia. Its con- 
cave side that faces the Atlantic Ocean, touching 
the Gulf of Mexico and Carribean Sea, is one 
thousand, seven hundred and twenty-nine miles 
long, while its convex side facing the Pacific is 
four thousand, five hundred and seventy-four 
miles long. Its orography and hydrography are 
such that, although it reaches from the thirty- 
second down to the fourteenth degree of north 
latitude, it has every variety of climate, and hence 
every kind of product. The land is traversed by 
two ranges of mountains almost parallel with its 
coasts. The range on the east, as in other coun- 
tries, is situated quite a distance from the sea and 
reaches its summit gradually, while the range on 



84 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

the west is steep and near the sea. The average 
height of the Sierra Madre range is ten thousand 
feet, reaching an elevation of seventeen thousand, 
live hundred and forty feet at Popocatepetl. 

The country is thus divided :'nto the hot low- 
lands, the temperate medium elevation, and the 
cool plateaux. The varying rainfall resulting 

from such a diversified altitude gives 
Climate, all varieties of climate. Mexico is 

not hot as the latitude would suggest. 
Although tropical it is much cooler, in the main 
than in the United States. The little strips of ter- 
ritory along the seas are hot, ranging from sixty 
to one hundred degrees Fahrenheit, but only five 
per cent of the population live there. In the tem- 
perate zone or medium elevation of from three to 
five thousand feet, where about thirty per cent of 
the people live and cultivate and grow everything 
indigenous to a temperate zone, the temperature 
runs from sixty-two to seventv-five degrees F. 
On the plateaux at an elevation of from five to 
eight thousand feet, where the most of the people 
live and grow wheat, apples, oats, potatoes, etc., 
the mean temperature is from fifty to sixty-five 
degrees F. 

Mexico's wonderful resources, therefore, be- 
gin with the configuration of the country itself. 
Some of the most beautiful scenery in the world 



Resources, Natural and Commercial 85 

is found in Mexico. The Basa- 
Configuration ciacic fall^ nine hundred and 

and Beauty, eighty feet high, cannot be sur- 
passed in the world. L^ake Patz- 
cuaro, next on the continent to Yellowstone Lake 
in elevation, with its tall mountain peaks just pro- 
truding above its glassy surface, is indescribable. 
From Mexico City you can see all zones from 
torrid to frigid. You can see the mountain cap- 
ped with eternal snow, the wheat just springing 
from the ground, and harvesting going on in the 
same sweep of vision. This means that you can 
plant and reap every day in the year where you 
can obtain water in the dry season. You can go 
on horseback in four or five hours from the tor- 
lid to the temperate zones. For instance, in go- 
ing by rail from Vera Cruz to the City of Mexico 
you will notice the natives at the little Indian 
town ''Maltrata" selling their tropical fruits to 
passengers, and when the train leaves to climb 
the Central Plateau, nine thousand feet high, 
they start out on foot and reach the first station, 
*'Esparanza," long before the train arrives and 
sell the same passengers fruits of another clime. 

That the reader may see these zones in beauti- 
ful contrast we quote from Mr. Charles Dudley 
Warner's description of the fifty miles by rail or 
twelve miles by wagon from the City of 



86 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

Cuernavaca Mexico to Cuernavaca. "Cuerna- 
the vaca is distinguished as tHe actual 

Beautiful. meeting place of the pine and the 
palm. It lies only a little more than 
fifty miles south of the City of Mexico, but in 
order to reach it there is a mountain to be cross- 
ed which has an elevation of over ten thousand 
feet. A railway climbs up this mountain, over the 
summit, to a wind-swept plain, in the midst of 
pine forests, called Tres Marias, marked by the 
sightly peaks of the Three Mary's. By long loops 
and zigzags it is crawling down the mountain on 
the other side to Cuernavaca. Mexico City has 
an elevation of seven thousand five hundred feet, 
Tres Marias of about ten thousand, and Cuerna- 
vaca of five thousand. The descent by the wagon- 
road is in length only twelve miles, but the drop 
in that distance is five thousand feet, so that the 
traveller passes very quickly from temperate to 
tropical conditions. From the heights Cuerna- 
vaca seems to lie in a plain, but it is really on a 
promontory between two barancas, and the whole 
country beyond is broken till the terraces fall off 
into more tropical places where the view is bor- 
dered by purple mountains. Indeed, the little city 
in the midst of this tumultuous plain is surround- 
ed by lofty mountains. The country around, 
and especially below to the south is irrigated, 
and presents a dozen contrasts of color in the 



Resources, Natural and Commercial 87 

evergreen foliage, the ripening, yellow crops of 
sugar-cane and grain, the clusters of big trees 
here and there about a village or hacienda, and 
the frequent church towers. All this is loveliness, 
a mixture of temperate and tropical grace, but 
there is grandeur besides. Looking to the east, 
say from the Palace of Cortez, over the fields of 
purple and green and yellow and brown, where 
the graceful palms place themselves just as an 
artist would have them in the foreground of his 
picture, the view is certainly one of the finest in 
the world. There is on the left the long moun- 
tain range with the peaks of Tres Marias, and 
along the foot of it haciendas and towns, cones of 
extinct volcanoes and noble rocky promontories. 
To form the middle distance, mountains come into 
the picture, sloping tog^ether to lead the eye 
along from one "value" to another, violet, purple, 
dark or shining as the sun strikes them, while on 
the left is a noble range of naked precipices of 
red rock, always startHng in color. It is some 
two thousand feet up the side of one of these red 
cliffs that there are the remains of an ancient city 
of Cliff Dwellers, almost inaccessible now, but 
once the home of a race that understood archi- 
tecture and knew how to carve. The lines of this 
natural picture, the fields, the intervening ledges, 
the lofty mountains, all converge to the spot the 
artist would choose for the eye to rest, and there, 



88 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

up in the heavens, are the snow-clad peaks of 
Popocatepetl and Iztaccihuatl, about seventeen 
thousand five hundred feet above the sea, volcanic 
creators of the region, and now undisputed lords 
of the landscape. In the evening these peaks are 
rosy in the sun ; in the morning their white immo- 
bility is defined against the rosy sunshine." 

Mexico is rich in fruits and flowers. Horti- 
cultural and all kinds of agricultural products, as 
well as fine timber on the mountains, are abund- 
ant. The wildwoods in some places look like a 
flower garden. 

Mexico produces some of the finest timber in 
the world. Out on the mountains there are mil- 
lions of acres of splendid oak and pine, and in the 
hot country many other varieties. 
Timber. This timber land can be bought often 
for from one to three dollars per acre. 
There are one hundred and fourteen varieties of 
building and cabinet woods — oak, pine, fir, cedar, 
mahogany, etc. There are twelve species of dye- 
woods, eight of gum trees, viz: cacao, india- 
rubber, copal, liquid-amber, camphor, turpentine, 
pine, and mesquite. There are seventeen varieties 
of oil bearing trees and fifty-nine species of 
medicinal plants. 

Very few of Mexico's best fruits are known in 
the United States, and those shipped there are of 
an inferior grade, as they are gathered green. 



Resources, Natural and Commercial 89 

There are twenty species of 
Fruits Not Known bananas. Some large purple 
In the States. ones grow fifteen inches 

long and from one to two 
and three inches thick. The reason that none of 
the fruits except the most common ones, as the 
pineapple, banana and cocoanut, are never sent to 
the States is that they are not in demand, and 
being unknown it would be necessary to cultivate 
an appetite for them. The mangoes, mamey, 
zapote, and papoya are distinctive Mexican fruits 
that are deHcious. Oranges, limes, shaddocks, 
apples, peaches, plums, pears and quinces grow 
in great numbers. 

Wheat, oats, cotton, rice, potatoes, onions, 
sugar-cane, alfalfa and all common crops do well 
at some elevation in Mexico. Cotton grows well, 

is a fine staple and sells at a 
Common Products good price. The import 
Do Well. duty on cotton, and the con- 

sumption being double the 
production, make it a good crop. It is the chief 
industry in the great Laguna district. It will 
grow on from year to year without re- 
Cotton, planting, but the best results come from 
replanting. La Esparanza is the larg- 
est cottonseed oil mill in the world, and next to 
the largest soap factory. It is situated in Gomez 
Palacio, in the center of this great cotton belt, 
and clears its millions annually. 



90 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

You will find wheat fields In Mexico that re- 
quire almost half a day to pass through them on 
the train. They raise from thirty to fifty bushels 
to the acre. Their mills make a fine 
Wheat and grade of flour that sells for twenty 
Corn. dollars per barrel. Corn is a good 

crop. It will grow in some placas 
almost sown, produce well, and sell at about two 
and one-half dollars per bushel. 

Mexico is a great alfalfa country, as you can 
get five and six cuttings, and it will 
Alfalfa, sell at from forty to sixty dollars per 
ton. 
Agricultural and horticultural industries in 
Mexico, like many other things, are about a 
thousand years behind the times. 
Behind the They could have all kinds of nice 
Times. fruits if they were to mix them up 
properly and cultivate them. The 
most common plow used today (191 1) is the forked 
stick with iron point drawn by the ox, being tied 
with rawhide to his horns. Their plowing looks 
more like play than anything else. And this pet- 
ox-forked-stick farming is not confined to the lit- 
tle farms of the poor, but is in general use among 
the rich, on farms that cannot be bought at any 
price. It is not for lack of funds to buy the best 
but lack of intelligence to know how to use im- 



Resources, Natural and Commercial 91 

proved tools on the part of the laborers. I saw 
on one large rich hacienda all kinds of latest im- 
proved tools and machinery laid aside in a corner, 
discarded, while hundreds of stick plows were 
scratching over miles of beautiful, rich, level, 
rootless, rockless soil. They were using some of 
the single plows after having reconstructed the 
tops by knocking off both handles and extending 
only one straight stick from the center, in the 
shape of the native plow. It would be out of the 
question to employ both hands, as they need to 
play and roll cigarettes. On many other rich ha- 
ciendas, however, they have adopted the 
"gringo's" methods together with his tools and 
are bringing things to pass. 

The agave is an important Mexican plant that 
grows wild and is also cultivated. It resembles 
what is known as the century plant. Portions of 
Mexico are literally covered with it. It yields a 
large quantity of a milky juice that is 
Agave or used in various ways. It contains 
Maguey. about seven per cent, alcohol. When 
it is first milked from the leaves it is 
sold as "agua miel," which has an acid taste. It 
soon ferments and at diflferent stages is sold un- 
der various names. The plant is a very hardy 
one and does not seem to need any rain at all. 
It will yield about one hundred and twenty-five 
gallons to the plant. They mature the eighth 



92 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

year, giving milk about five months. It grows 
wild, thick, on all the arid limestone hills, but 
v/hen they are cultivated the plants are trans- 
planted in their third year, placing them about 
fifteen feet apart. 

Henequen is a species of the agave, but has a 
much finer fiber and is being cultivated on a large 
scale. The fiber industry from agave 
Henequen. and henequen is assuming large pro- 
portions. The plants will yield more 
than a thousand pounds to the acre. The ''hene- 
quen hemp" is well known in the United States. 

The cactus is one of the commonest of Mexican 
plants. Although this plant contains in its thick 
green leaves more water than any other plant, it 
seems to be entirely independent of rains. It yields 
a much-prized fruit resembling" the prickly pear. 
The fruit is used in many ways. Often 
Cactus, the leaves of the cacti are chopped up 
and sold in the market for a vegetable. 
They will also furnish food for cattle in winter, 
while wild animals, out a hundred miles from wa- 
ter, will live year after year by sipping water or 
moisture from its leaves. If our California friend, 
Mr. Burbank, succeeds in replacing the Mexican 
cactus with the thornless the possibilities cannot 
be estimated. 

Large quantities of chicle (chewing gum), 



Resources, Natural and Commercial 93 

canaigre, ginger, peppermint, and 
Chicle yuca (an important starch plant), 

And Others are raised in Mexico. The annual 

chicle crop alone is worth some- 
thing over two million dollars. 

On the lowlands many varieties of grasses 
grow, and in this moist, fertile soil the grass so 
completely covers the ground that all thistles and 
weeds are choked out, affording excellent condi- 
tions for stock raising. Upon the plateaux in 
the high woodlands the wild 
Grasses grasses grow in abundance the 

and entire year as there are no 

Stock Raising, frosts and snows to kill them. 
Cattle thrive through the year 
without feeding. Cattle raising is already quite 
an industry, but is only in its incipiency. The 
difficulty so far is that the cattle are too small for 
the market. The average Mexican steer weighs 
only from eight hundred to a thousand pounds, 
while the Liverpool market would not consider 
anything under an average of twelve hundred 
pounds. Mexico's trade in cattle with the United 
States increased a thousandfold within only a few 
years under the liberal provisions of the ''Wilson 
Bill," which taxed cattle twenty per cent, ad 
valorem. But this trade can be entirely destroyed 
by a high protective tariff. There is a wide open 
fidd for this industry in MexicOj as the weight o! 



94 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

the cattle can easily be brought up to twelve hun- 
dred pounds. Stock raising in general should pay 
v/ell in Mexico. Grazing lands in Mexico are 
cheap, fine horses are in demand at fancy prices, 
and where cured ham is worth seventy-five cents 
or a dollar per pound, when it can be raised as 
cheaply as anywhere, business demands a trial. 
Sheep and goat raising is already a thriving in- 
dustry. 

For hundreds of years Mexico has been a great 
mining country. It has gone through the experi- 
ence of every mode of mining. The wild Indian 
tried his hand in his day. The Span- 
Mining iard during colonial rule worked all 
Industry, the known mines that were rich in 
gold and silver near the surface, but 
when they struck copper, as they knew nothing of 
the modern processes of milling, shut down. 
Some of the richest mines in Mexico today are 
those old Spanish claims opened up under mod- 
ern processes. 

For the last decade the mining industry has 
grown marvelously under the liberal policy that 
President Diaz inaugurated and 
Mining Laws maintained towards foreign capi- 
Are Liberal. tal. Foreign companies have de- 
nounced hundreds of prospects, 
and bought hundreds of other prospects and 
mines from the natives for a song. The policy of 



Resources, Natural and Commercial 95 

the government has been to try to encourage for- 
eign capital in every way possible, until now some 
of the "high mucks" are getting uneasy lest the 
country gets into the hands of foreigners, and 
so they are proposing some stringent legislation. 
Article 144 of their proposed new mining law, 
which prohibits foreign corporations from enter- 
ing Mexico, or foreigners from owning anything 
only as they incorporate as Mexican companies, 
may yet become a law with so much agitation on 
the subject, even if Diaz did veto it. 

With the agitation on the subject sooner or 

later something of the kind will be effective. 

While there is truth in the contention that all 

companies doing business in a 

New Law land should be required to in- 

Backward Step, corporate under the laws of 
that land, and while it is true 
that foreigners are purchasing from ignorant na- 
tives rich claims for packages of cigarettes, still 
such a policy will retard woefully the mining in- 
dustry of the country. There are thousands of 
American, English and German seekers digging 
holes in the hills all over the country, some of 
them putting all they have into them with the hope 
of getting more out. Ninety out of every hundred 
of them go broke, but the ten who get rich do not 
want to organize as Mexican companies. It is 
more convenient for them to incorporate under 



96 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

the laws of some State where it is easy to do so, 
and since there are so many places where capital 
can find this easy way, it will naturally seek it. 

Mexico sells to the United States annually an 
immense amount of lead and copper, and more 
than thirteen million dollars' worth of gold in ore, 
bullion and coin is imported into the 
Exports. United States from Mexico annually, 
according to United States bookkeep- 
ing, but only about eight millions according to 
Mexico's books. However, the discrepancy is 
easily understood when you remember the large 
percentage of undervaluations and amounts used 
in the fine arts. Discrepances in commercial sta- 
tistics between countries may also occur in one 
country estimating values in mixed ores — un- 
extracted metals. Estimating that one-fourth of 
Mexico's silver production was not coined, a fair 
estimate when you remember that on one church 
altar alone, Guadalupe, in Mexico City, so it is 
said, there are twenty thousand dollars in silver. 
This would place the silver production at nearly 
seven billion pesos, or one-half of the world's pro- 
duct. Mexico exports to the United States an- 
nually five million pounds of sugar, eight million 
pounds of hides, and one and a half million pounds 
of wool. 

There are more than twenty-three thousand 
kilometers, or about fourteen thousand miles, of 




Irrigated Corn on San Jiian de Miches. 




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Durango timber of J. S. McCaiiglimim, of 
San Manuel. 




Baisaiaich Falls, 980 feet high, in the State of 
Chihuahua, Mexico. 



Resources, Natural and Commercial 97 

railroads already built in Mexico, connecting 
every important city and town, crossing moun- 
tains twelve thousand feet high, and 
Railroads, netting annually eighty million dol- 
lars. The roads are owned by the 
government and foreign capital — about half and 
half. The government is trying to get complete 
control of the roads. While many of the roads 
make very good time, the service as a general 
thing is very poor. Like almost everything else 
in Mexico, it is of low grade. Being an easy, slow 
going country one has to be satisfied with the very 
ordinary. They use first, second and third class 
cars, but the first class is worse than any negro 
car or smoker of the United States, but the Pull- 
man car is up to date. A railroad man said 
when asked hov/ he liked railroading in Mexico, 
"Very well, indeed; down here they are not so 
particular ; a fellow can do any kind of an old way 
and never have to account for it." The gringo, 
however, holds all the important places, and com- 
mands a much larger salary than the natives. 
This, of course, incites the natives to wrath and 
breeds a hatred for Americans. And in their 
unions they try to demand the wages paid to 
Americans, although they do not do the work. 
"Mexico for Mexicans!" is one of their mottoes. 
But the gringo will be needed a number of years 
yet. 



98 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

There are two thousand five hundred postoffices 
with twelve thousand employees that net annually 
three and a half million dollars. While wonderful 
progress has been made in the mail 
Postal system during the last few years, the 
Service, service is still very poor. If you go to 
the general delivery there and present 
}Our name and call for your mail, they will ask 
you on what day of the month your letters came 
and from what direction- They do not put up the 
mail in alphabetical order, but keep each day's 
mail to itself, and list it, and put it up on the wall. 
So when you go and search the hall, keeping data 
of dates and directions, and whether letters or 
papers, you will finally give him the list, and then 
begins a long search. 

There are seventy thousand eight hundred 
miles of telegraph and telephone wire in use in 
Mexico that earn more than three million dollars 
annually. This service is also poor. 
Telegraph. We have known every wire between 
capital cities to be down twelve 
days, just because a swollen river washed a 
bridge away. In the United States the wire would 
have been connected in two hours, and passengers 
transferred within a few hours. But in Mexico I 
had to go from the city of Chihuahua to the city 
of Durango via El Paso and Eagle Pass or wait 
three weeks. I had to travel a thousand miles to 



Resources, Natural and Commercial 99 

get home from my District Conference. In these 
last three public services, however, — railroads, 
postal and telegraph services — no country can 
claim so much improvement during the last 
twenty-five years as Mexico. 

The industrial and manufacturing resources of 
Mexico are growing into wonderful proportions. 
A score of big smelting and re- 
Manufacturing fining companies, steel plants, 

Industries. factories of every kind, soap, 
glycerine, cotton and woolen 
mills are being established on every hand — gen- 
erally by foreign capital. 

The public lands are taken up by denounce- 
ments similar to those made in the United States, 
at about one dollar per acre at present. It was as 
low as five and ten cents. The 
Public Lands — owner of the surface never owns 

Ownership. the mineral right without spe- 
cial denouncements which cost 
about five dollars per acre each year, and 
denouncements of mineral claims are never 
made only as mines are thought to be 
discovered. Any one has a right to make 
mineral denouncements on any one's surface 
light and owns them in fee simple as long as the 
annual tax is paid. This liberal mining law has 
been a great incentive to double diligence among 
the many foreign seekers of the '^shiny stuf?»" 



100 Mexico, Y ester day , Today and Tomorrow 

The most unfortunate thing, possibly, for the 
country is her immense tracts of land owned by 

single individuals and families. 

Special In the first place, one-third of the 

Land Grants, public lands were given to the 

surveyors for their work. This 
put a large part of the land of the country in the 
hands of a few. Then during the wars the govern- 
ment had no money to properly pay the great 
leaders of the army, and land being plentiful, it 
was dished out to the generals by states, or the 
conquering general took it as spoils of conquest. 
It is said that General Louis Terreras owns near- 
ly all the land from the city of Chihuahua to El 
Paso, Texas, nearly a day's ride on the train. 
And such is the case throughout the country at 
large. If these large tracts were divided up 
thousands of families could have prosperous little 
farms and the country would blossom as the rose. 
But the large haciendas of tHe rich families are 
their worlds. They live all to themselves and have 
no care nor concern for the outside world. They 
do not read and keep up with the times — do not 
care about improvements and modern advance- 
ment — in fact, in some places bitterly oppose any 
reform or advancement. Their little worlds are 
just Hke they want them, and they do not wish to 
be disturbed. On some of these ranches the cor- 
rupt rich old king is so surrounded by hundreds 



Resources, Natural and Commercial. 101 

of families in perfect slavery, ready to serve him 
in any capacity that will please him, and for just 
beans enough to keep body and soul together, 
that he fears that the coming of enlightenment 
or civilization might play havoc in his palatial 
court and fair domain. One of these rich old fel- 
lows who owned a few hundred miles square of 
territory objected to the building of the railroad 
into the country (although it would serve him 
more than any one else, from a money considera- 
tion). He charged the country ten dollars for each 
of the thousands of bushes they cut on the right 
of way. But when the government took that as a 
basis upon which to calculate his taxes, and be- 
gan to count bushes, he agreed to donate the way. 
(Diaz knew how to handle them.) Christian en- 
lightenment will work a great reform and some of 
them do not want any. In some of these rich fam- 
ilies they scarcely ever marry outside their own 
relatives. 

But Mexico's chief resource lies in her intelli- 
gent brown-eyed boys and girls. The possibilities 
that lie back of these educated and trained heads 
and hands cannot be estimated. As 
Ethnology, a nation her greater greatness and 
wider usefulness will be felt as are 
harnessed these higher powers of trained hands, 
educated brains, and warmed (enlarged) souls. 
The money must be transmuted into manhood 



102 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

before her greatest resources and opportunities 
are brought to light. The republic contains fifteen 
millions of inhabitants, twenty per cent, of whom 
are of European, forty-three per cent, of mixed, 
and thirty-seven per cent, of Indian descent. 
There are one hundred and eight languages: 
thirty-seven of the first order or languages poly- 
syllabic, of sub-flexion; forty-two of the second 
order, or polysyllabic, of juxtaposition; twenty- 
three of the third order, or polysyllabic, synthetic; 
and five of the fourth order, or quasi-monosyl- 
labic. 

The principal languages spoken in Mexico to- 
day are the Nahuatl, with six dialects; the Seri, 
with two; the Papago, with six; the Apache, with 

seven; the Otomi, with five; the 
Spoken Huaxtec, with Totonac; the Tar- 

Languages, rascan, with Matlalfzincan ; and the 

Mixtec, with four dialects. Most 
all the natives, however, speak a little broken 
Spanish. When it comes to foreign tongues, it is 
difficult to tell which you hear most on the streets, 
English, French, German, Italian, Chinese, Japan- 
ese, or what not. You can find anybody or hear 
anything — the resources are truly wonderful and 
opportunities startling. 




CHAPTER Vll. 

Romanism vs. Evangelism. 

E have here two religious systems which 
to some appear not to disagree enough 
to warrant an invasion of the territory of 
one by the other; nevertheless, from a historical 
and moral standpoint, their aims and results ap- 
pear in striking contrast. One is a religion of 
love, the other a religion of law — by force. 

The Roman Catholic religion was sent to Mex- 
ico simply as a conquering system — not to give 
place to other teachings, habits and customs, but 
where moral suasion failed at the 
A Conquering cannon's mouth to tear down all 
Religion. existing forms and habits of wor- 

ship, some of which were as 
dear to the ignorant Aztec heart as any that have 
ever carried joy and peace to a heart that has 
beat in human breast. After the storm of con- 
quest was over, fortimately for the sake of a little 
peace in the country, the Indians did not show 
much disposition to resist, and only occasionally 
rebelled against the Roman Catholic religion. 
They were put under the care of **Encomenderos" 



104 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

that taught them the catechism, together with 
many automatic devotional practices. 

The new reHgion was very easily adopted by the 
Indians as it appeared only to the outward senses, 
without requiring any exertion at all on the 
part of their spiritual natures. Hence, repentance 
and regeneration were unnecessary 
A Religion and unknown. The Indians knew 
of Form. nothing of experimental Christian- 
ity — knew only what they saw, and 
often as a matter of convenience fell into line with 
the new order of things. Consequently their re- 
ligion became simply habit and custom. And so 
with its prejudices and superstitions it has come 
en from generation to generation down to the 
present time. 

It is true that the moral standard may have 

been raised a little. To a certain extent some of 

the most inhuman practices were abolished, but 

Rome did not destroy idolatry, 

Little and many writers have claimed 

Improvement, that she increased it. Thousands 
of the Mexican people are today 
in reality bowing down and worshiping stocks and 
stones in different forms. Thousands really be- 
lieve that images and bones are capable of per- 
forming miracles. It is a common thing to see 
people carrying articles to the priest to be blessed 
sc that they may have the protection and miracu- 



Resources, Natural and Commercial. 105 

lous powers that it would subsequently possess. 
Rome pulled down some of the ugly Aztec idols, 
but only placed others in their stead, possibly a 
little fairer. The famous Sanctuary Hill of Guad- 
alupe was but a shrine of an old Indian goddess. 

The Roman Catholic religion in Mexico is a 
religion of feasts. The idea was to overcome the 
sadness of the captive Indians, deprived of all their 
goods and their wills as well. To have 
Holiday them gather by thousands and march 
Festivals, in long procession, with the gorgeous 
banners and priestly robes, with can- 
dles and sky-rockets, and all kinds of amusements 
and intoxicants, in a perfect hurrah all the time, 
until they forgot their disagreeable surroundings. 
These holiday festivals come every few days, and 
(-ach one is celebrated more elaborately than the 
Fourth of July with Americans. The poor people 
under the perfect intoxication of excitement re- 
main in complete idleness and plan from one feast 
to the other almost, giving no place to sober up 
and earn something to keep themselves respecta- 
ble. When St. John's Day is over they begin to 
prepare for St. Peter's Day, and so they live in a 
continual strain of excitement all the time. 

Some of their practices on some of their holy 
or feast days are ridiculous in the extreme. On 



306 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

"All Saints" and "All Souls" days the cemeteries 
are dressed up with every color, 
Degrading while candles are burned around 
and the graves by friends and relatives. 

Debasing. They make a regular picnic of the 
whole thing. During Holy Week 
the scenes are exceedingly ridiculous. A 
man to represent Judas is chained and 
kept in an iron cage in the churches while 
thousands pass by and gaze at him as though 
there were no doubt that he was the real Judas. 
Finally on Friday a mob hangs him in effigy in 
several different public parks, shoot into the 
stuffed body, and then madly tear him to pieces. 
A full-sized image of Christ crucified lies with 
blood on it in the churches from day to day wKile 
thousands pass by groaning and kissing its feet. 
On the saints' days they will have bull fights and 
cock fights in honor of and named after the saints. 
They use no kind of sense of propriety. Every 
boy and girl has a saint, and therefore a saint day. 
For example all Johns have St. John's Day, and 
Marys St. Mary's Day, with all kinds of ridiculous 
proceedings. And thus this corrupt system hides 
some of their sorrows, making a great impression 
on the ignorant individuals. (See Chapter V.) 

Some writers have been loud in praising Ro- 
manism as compared with the early religion of the 



Romanism vs. Evangelism. 107 

Aztecs, based upon humanitarian traits and 
claims, as against the cruelty of the 
Intolerance, early Mexican practices. It is true 
that the bloody sacrifices of the 
Aztecs to a certain extent were suppressed 
by Rome; but was it not also true that Rome lit 
the fires of the Inquisition that consumed men and 
women? This Roman tyranny not only perse- 
cuted and put to the flames warriors and enemies, 
but many peaceful citizens as well, leaving entire 
families destitute by acts of confiscation, and in 
many cases in their wretchedness they were con- 
fined in prison. If it is argued that the victims 
v/ere fewer in number than in the Aztecs' day, 
attention is called to the fact that the corporal 
chastisement of colonial inquisition days was the 
least part of their fearful doom. If only hundreds 
were put to the fire or steel of the tormentors, 
thousands might have chosen death, where mil- 
hons of wills and souls were enslaved, ''driven as 
dumb cattle" without energy or aim to a choice- 
less, purposeless destiny. Romanism had aspired 
to conquer the Indians by blindfolding them, and 
to rule by making them idiots; it had done its 
best, its work was finished. 

Nearly all the stories of carnage have led to 
some glorious advancement of the conquering 
army of our Lord. God's eye was upon the scene 



108 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

while Rome was playing its role with the early 

Mexican mind and soul, and sug- 

Transitional gested a new scene — the glorious 

Period. war of independence. This war 
opened up new ways by arous- 
ing the sleeping and deadened sensibilities of 
an enslaved race, holding before them hope and 
aspiration by hanging stars out in their dark 
night; but the consummation of the war was not 
all. On account of the power of the clergy, and 
the many evils that the people had acquired by 
inlieritance and practice that were contrary to an 
Evangelical Christianity, the evolution was neces- 
sarily very slow. It simply meant a constant, per- 
sistent struggle on the part of their great leaders, 
whose cry for complete deliverance — song of per- 
fect freedom, — could not be hushed by anything 
less than a liberty for the Mexican people that 
would reach the mind and touch the soul. To gain 
this high and cherished place meant revolution 
after revolution, until they reached a climax in 
the "three years' war," the righteous War of the 
Reformation, when the Liberal Party unconscious- 
ly prepared the way for the entrance of Evangel- 
ical Christianitv. 

The Church of Rome had ruled the country for 
three hundred years. Everything had been sub- 



Romanism vs. Evangelism. 109 

ject to her will. The people were teachable and 
the authorities had not failed to 
Protestantism teach them their doctrines and 
Necessary, methods. The unbounded riches 
of the land were at her disposal. 
What an opportunity for uplifting and enlighten- 
ing the people! And yet the results of her bane- 
ful teachings and practices and complete domin- 
ion are an object lesson for the world. Truly, 
Eome could not uplift the country or she would 
have done it ere this. When the wise farmer sees 
only in Mexico today by invitation of Mexicans, 
that his sowing has failed to take hold and sprout, 
and that thistles are coming up instead, he plows 
up the weeds and sows again Our Lord is a wise 
husbandman and desires that his laborers prepare 
the soil and sow good seed. And if the tree does 
not produce he wants us to cut it down, if we 
can't make it produce by digging about it, and 
plant over again. Our blessed Evangelism is not 
but by order of God himself. It is there digging 
3bout some old trees, in some instances making 
them produce— so one of the Roman Catholic 
priests tells me. But in general it is preparing the 
soil over again and sowing some better seed. The 
soil has been watered by the blood of martyrs 
which is the seed of the Church. The first Protest- 
ant martyr was John L. Stephens, who was mur- 
dered by Roman Catholic fanatics in the town of 



110 Mexico^ Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

>^hualulco in March, 1874. As in the days of the 
original first martyred Stephen there were some 
standing by who raised no objection, for the mur- 
derers of two commercial travellers were appre- 
hended and summarily shot while those of Ste- 
phens were condemned to death but allowed to 
escape. The soil has received the seed of the 
b'ood of the martyrs and the sowing has contin- 
ued. For the cultivation of the crops is given 
muscle, sinews and brain of some of the Church's 
most consecrated. The fertile field today looks 
promising under the tears and smiles of loving 
heaven as it is watered by showers and kissed by 
loving sunbeams. Already some harvesting has 
been done, but the field is large and the laborers 
are few. 

Protestantism was well adapted to the needs of 
Mexico. It exactly filled the long-felt want, for 
it appealed to the mind and spirit, whereas Ro- 
manism had only sought outward 
Protestantism submission, and practiced out- 
Adapted to ward forms. Protestantism se- 
Mexico. cured the exercise of the whole 

being. While it taught the peo- 
ple outward forms, like taking the holy sacrament 
of the Lord's Supper, it was teaching them not to 
take bread that did not belong to them after they 
left the church, appealing to their moral sense of 
right and wrong and teaching them God's word 



Romanism z's. Bvangelism. Ill 

upon the subject. Romanism, on the other hand, 
withheld the Bible from them and did not appeal 
to the realm of spirit. It taught them that if they 
stole anything to go to the priest and he would 
forgive them ; and thus the fundamentals in an in- 
telligent Christianity, Conviction and Repentance, 
were unknown. And even the untrained Aztec 
mind and heart felt this sense of an aching void 
within that all the forms and promises of the 
priestly order could not fully fill and satisfy. Pro- 
testantism not only appealed to mind and spirit, 
and thus exercised the entire being, but in the sec- 
ond place it was not intolerant. Its methods were 
better suited to the wishes of the people in that it 
sought to spread the "good tidings" by teaching 
and preaching without intruding upon the sanc- 
tity and in the home of the conscience by any 
forced method. It was better suited to the peo- 
ple's needs, in the third place, in that it engender- 
ed a democratic spirit among them. It stirred up 
mdividualism and brought out the dignity of 
rr;anhood and womanhood, teaching them that 
they were akin to God and that their faithful 
^'padre" was only a brother equal with them, and 
rot a god to forgive sin. But above all, through 
the instrumentalities of Protestant Evangelism 
they were actually saved from their sins, and then 
they knew experimentally that the new songs of 
joy upon their lips and expression of gladness in 



J 12 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

their hearts could not be manifestations of mis- 
chievous pranks of a corrupt earthly priesthood. 
Not much was done in Evangelical work in 
Mexico before the seventies. A few colporters 
had made their way through the country at great 
risk of life to sell a few Bibles 
Introduction of and preach the gospel here and 
Protestantism. there to single individuals. The 
most of the Evangelical 
Churches entered Mexico in 1872 and 1873, and 
before the end of the century there were seven 
hundred congregations with fifty thousand ad- 
herents. The good work has steadily gone on 
until today there are possibly as many people in 
Mexico who have been influenced by Protestant 
Evangelism, to a certain extent, as there are 
strictly Catholic communicants. It was hard at 
first. There was bitter opposition on every hand, 
but the different congregations began to build 
churches and schools, open up hospitals and cure 
the sick, preach the gospel and sell Bibles and 
scatter tracts until Garcia Cubas, the illustrious 
geographer, said that the Protestant religion had 
opened its way especially among the honest 
artisans' and working men, ennobling them. 

The mill of Protestant Evangelism grinds out a 






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Romanism 7js. Evangelism. 113 

very different product from that of Romanism. 

A man may be a good Catholic in Mex- 
Some ico, although he cheats and steals and 
Results, lies and kills, if only he confesses, 

prays to Mary, and pays. One fel- 
low, bad fellow (I might say fool fellow), was 
given a "signed up through ticket," didn't have to 
lie over in purgatory at all, for putting an iron 
fence around the church! But wherever the glo- 
rious gospel of Jesus Christ has entered some 
precious souls have been redeemed from sin and 
vice. The genuine Christian convert is a miracle 
of grace just the same in Mexico as in any other 
land. Drunkenness, cheating and vice have been 
cast forever from many a life due to the direct in- 
fluence of Christian Evangelism. And these souls 
that have been thus redeemed are worth more 
than all the effort, money and men that have been 
employed in this crusade. 

It is needless to say that one of the most potent 
factors of this Christian Evangelism is found in 
our church schools. This agency is ideal from the 
fact you have through it a much easier access to 
the people, for all classes that truly love progress 
and good morals are in easy touch 
Evangelical with our schools, although they 
Education, might not be able to pass by a Pro- 
testant church without crossing 
themselves and uttering a little prayer to Mary to 



114 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

save them from eternal perdition. We are not only 
able to reach the people better through the school 
agency, but the high standard of mission schools 
has had a healthy effect upon all Catholic schools, 
and especially is it rapidly placing its stamp on all 
public schools, furnishing teachers for them in nu- 
merous cases. As an Evangelizing agency it has 
been a mighty factor, and its contribution to the 
general progress of the country has been recog- 
nized by the government. These mission schools 
have reached out a helping hand to the helpless 
and taught them by deed as they taught them by 
word the essential virtues of the Christian re- 
ligion. Hundreds of orphans and destitute chil- 
dren have thus been raised up to decency and re- 
spectability, while well-to do families, seeing an 
opportunity to educate their children in a moral 
atmosphere of kindness like that, prefer our 
schools to either the Catholic or state institutions, 
and sometimes crowd them. 

The Bible and tracts have been among the 
most effective agencies in the crusade of Evangel- 
ism. The patient colporter has crossed the moun- 
tains from shore to shore selling his 
Colporters. Bibles and scattering tracts in 
every city, village and on ev- 
ery farm, and has thus contributed to the diffusion 
of the knowledge of the "Tree of Life" in every 
part of the land. The Bible has a warm place in 



Romanism vs. Evangelism. US 

many Mexican hearts ; a gift of a Bible has led to 
the conversion of many. One will loan his Bible 
to another, or read to him, and he will soon be 
converted. It has induced many an old man and 
woman to learn to read. One Bible was sent to a 
n:an who read it and was converted, who in turn 
read it to fourteen of his neighbors who were con- 
verted, and they organized a little church. Other 
religious books and periodicals have enlightened 
hundreds of souls. There are many Christians 
who relate in their experience the reading of a 
leaflet as the first step in their Christian life. 
Thousands of Bibles are sold annually arid many 
ether good books. There are twenty religious pe- 
riodicals printed in the Republic and they have a 
large circulation. 

The Protestant Church was the first to call the 
attention of the Mexican people to the good cause 
of temperance. Did Rome say one word during 
the three hundred years of her un- 
Temperance. disputed lordship and perfect con- 
trol of Mexico on the question of 
temperance? She was too busy collecting fees for 
the births, baptisms and deaths of her people, the 
three things that all, rich or poor, had to do and 
pay for, and where the parties were able they 
paid the large marriage fee; but this was one fee 
they could get around by not marrying, and pos- 
sibly not more than one-third of the people have 



116 Mexico, Yesterday J Today and Tomorrow 

ever been married. Yes, the Protestant Church 
started the agitation of temperance, and her voice 
has not been in vain. Even the government and 
many individual sympathizers are now fighting the 
demon drink. From the Sunday school, pulpit 
and press is heard the voice of Protestant Christ- 
ianity in no uncertain sound. The country is 
aroused; temperance societies are being organ- 
ized; the cantina has been put. out of the railroad 
eating houses; and the question is being agitated 
from one end of the country to the other. But 
who ever heard of Romanism leading a fight of 
that kind, or even entering the fight until Protest- 
antism had pushed it on them, until they had to 
take sides for or against it? Temperance is there- 
fore a strong arm of Protestant Evangelism vs. 
Romanism. 

The great argument that the Roman Church 
has against Protestantism, they say, is that it is 
divided into numberless sects. I'hey say that that 

is conclusive evidence that the people 
Union, are not to read the Bible; that the 

right interpretation thereof is difficult 
and should be undertaken only by the head of the 
church, and that all the rest of the people should 
receive it through their priests; that if each one 
reads for himself, there will be differences of 
opinion, which is not best. There is nothing, of 
course, in their contention, as all minds of equal 



Romanism vs. Evangelism. IIT 

caliber have the same privileges, and an agreement 
or union reached over strictly ignorance could not 
be justified before man or God. But that there 
are too many and useless divisions the whole 
world is beginning to believe. No one feels the 
loss of effectiveness in useless divisions, and knows 
the strength and value of Christian fellowship, 
like a missionary on a mission field. It is a healthy 
sign that the spirit of union is being cultivated in 
many of the branches of Protestantism today, 
especially in the mission fields. Protestantism 
needs to get together. In Mexico the divisions 
?re many and unnecessary. The idea of having 
two mission Methodist denominations in one city ! 
The Sunday schools and young people's societies 
of Mexico have contributed of late years much to 
a better understanding and fuller fellowship 
among the Evangelical denominations, by meeting 
in conventions in the large cities of the Republic, 
with one purpose and aim. The discussions in 
these gatherings of the furtherance of the King- 
dom of God has impressed the country with the 
Oneness of the Evangelical idea and promoted a 
friendly feeling between the churches. 

There are about a thousand congregations in 
the country, reaching from Sonora to Yucatan, 
each one a burning light and living protest against 



118 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tofuorrow 

idolatry, superstition and vice. The people are 
poor and not very many churches 

Self are self supporting. Some one has 

Supporting, asked if we ever get any of the 
higher class into the Evangeli- 
cal churches. Sometimes, but not often. 
What we are doing is taking a low class 
and making a higher class out of them. 
Self-support is a thing that is now being 
emphasized through the country. Quite a num- 
ber of churches are paying the salaries of their 
pastors this year. And this idea will grow more 
popular and the churches grow more able. Pro- 
testantism is in Mexico to remain, notwithstand- 
ing the hatred and opposition it has to encounter. 
It is sending its roots out in every direction, 
taking firm hold in Mexican soil, and is felt in re- 
ligion, in education and in social life. Its branches 
will grow higher and extend wider until under its 
strong protection the weak will find safety and the 
strong more strength. Evangelical Christianity is 
what Mexico needs; it will lift the Republic as it 
has every land that it has touched up to a higher 
plane. That it is to be the future religion of the 
land of Hidalgo and Juarez no sane man can 
any longer doubt. 

In this chapter on Evangelism a presentation 
of the American problem in Mexico will not be 



Romanisni vs. Bvangelism. 119 

out of place. Mexico's American problem is a 
great one. Americans are pouring in 
America! from everywhere, and as a rule they 
Problem, are a sinful class coming only in search 
of gold or safety from a sheriff. Skill- 
ed workmen are needed in all the departments of 
industry aid Americans have been in demand. 
They have not only filled the most important 
places, but by virtue of their skill and means, 
have succeeded in getting control of railroads, 
large mines and manufacturing establishments 
throughout ihe land, until Mexico is a little anx- 
ious lest the- own and control too much. But the 
problem tha confronts us is their moral welfare. 
When our boys leave home with their faces turn- 
ed westward they not only set their hearts on 
gold, but toe often on pleasure — a good time — as 
well. Boys Yho were Sunday school pupils and 
pretty punctial church goers at home have said 
by their acticis when they crossed the Rio 
Grande, "Godbye God, I am going into Mexico!" 
Their adventirous aspirations had been for years 
to break awa; from the old associations of their 
childhood andgo into the wild world to *^get rich 
quick" and dmk until intoxicated by pleasure's 
happiest dreaiis — to sow their season of wild 
oats, then to rturn home and be men, etc. They 
felt a kind of 2 relief when they got out from un- 
der the shadov of the old home church tower — out 



120 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

/ 

of hearing of the old home bell and almost beyond 
the reach even of a mother's prayers, to sip the 
yet unexperienced sweets from sin's great garden. 
They left their father's house; they clitibed the 
Mexican plains; they sinned; they put their money 
in a mine; they lost all. And one here and there 
today is sitting in a corner of a saloon ivHispering 
to himself, "My father's house— plenty!" One 
who has been turned down by the woijd, but who 
still has something in him that is gooi, as his old 
mother well knows as she sits on thesteps in the 
late eventide, with her face turned westward, sing- 
ing "Oh where is my wandering boyfonight? He 
was once all right ; go search for hiq if you will, 
and when you find him . don't forgej to tell him 
that I love him still!" Now, these ^re our own 
boys. Romanism will only lead th^ further in 
sin. Christian Evangelism alone w)l save them. 
What they need is some one to gdto them and 
tell them in their mother's tongu^ to ''cheer 
up, there is a brighter day"; to l^d them into 
forms of service that are famiHar,|and many of 
them will be saved from sin. The Churches are 
answering this need the best they in. They are 
planting American churches in eveif city, and the 
good they do cannot be measured At the close 
of my service one morning I call^ for member- 
ship. A lady came forward weepit^ and told me 



Rommiism vs. Evangelism 121 

that she was a Methodist preacher's daughter, but 
had not been to church for a number of years and 
wanted to join the church again. One day my 
family physician came to see me and said that a 
Mexican had just brought him a note stating that 
one of our townsmen had gotten one of his legs 
mashed to pieces while putting up a stamp mill 
over on the Pacific Slope. As the Mexican had 
been four days getting in, the doctor said that it 
would be seven or eight days after the accident 
before he could possibly reach him, and he ex- 
pected to find him dead. He wanted me to go 
with him and we would at least give him a Christ- 
ian burial. After two hours renting and arrang- 
ing our pack animals and riding horses, we start- 
ed out over the roughest of the Sierra Madre 
Mountains. We reached him in time to save his 
life and brought him back with us on a stretcher 
the hundred miles over the mountains to Du- 
rango. Only one who could have spent one of 
those nights with us, under a dirty little tent in 
the rain, with that man more dead than alive, 
could really know the value of Christian Evangel- 
ism in this country. The American people here 
are few, comparatively speaking, and badly scat- 
tered, and as a general thing uninterested in 
Christian work. But that makes their needs the 
greater. This is a work that claims and demands 



122 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

our attention. In the first place, the Mexicans 
will always point to the Americans as representa- 
tives of onr country and religion. In the second 
place, they are lost human beings and need a Sa- 
vior. But above all, they are our own boys. 



D 



CHAPTER VIIL 

History, Ancient and Colonial 

N THE length of an ordinary essay 
touching the past of a land as old 
and as full of interest as Mexico, 
it is, of course, impossible to mention more 
than the important incidents of great epochs 
without entering into the details of any. 

The past of Mexico can easily be noticed under 
the special topics, Ancient, Colonial, Independent 
ard modern Mexico. 

The early history of Mexico attracts our atten- 
t:on from the fact that the intelligence of its an- 
c-ient inhabitants— its primitive civilization— ex- 
celled that of any other North Amer- 
Ancient ican race, judging from the only cri- 
Mexico. terion we have, viz: the intelligent 
look of the standing monuments of 
that dead civilization. 

In the study of the ancient epoch no attempt is 
made to solve the problem of the origin of the 
Mexicans, nor to examine to any extent their pre- 



124 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

historic age. This special theme has received con- 
siderable attention from different 
Prehistoric writers. Some have devoted one- 
Mexico, fourth, others one-half, and some, 
as Senor Gregoria Garcia their en- 
tire book space to this special theme. The results 
of all this investigation have been about like Se- 
nores Adalberto Esteva and Adolfo Dublan said 
touching the same question in their introduction 
to their "Hlstoria Patria," one of the public school 
text-books written in the year 1903: ''So many 
opinions have been expressed that the question is 
left in greater obscurity." 

Whether a close study of the architectural re- 
mains and ancient fine arts force you to accept 
the Roman or Grecian theories; or the analogies 
in speech, color, etc., lead you to believe in the 
Japanese or African theories; or whether the tra- 
ditional stories of a land-way 
Theories Very leading from island to island 
Speculative. across the Pacific (now sub- 

merged), and that of the famous 
submerged "Atlantis Continent" that Plato spoke 
of in his "Timaeus" translated and published by 
Chavero in his "A Traves de los Siglos," by Ban- 
croft in his "Native Races," and by Foster in his 
''Prehistoric Races," should make you believe in 
the correctness of the Atlantis theory; or the cor- 
rupt morals in the fine arts as sculptured in mar- 



History, Ancient and Colonial 125 

ble that adorn most of the plazas in Mexico, of 
''half man and beast" point you to the Phoeni- 
cian, Baal, or Moloch worship, and lead you to the 
Phoenician theory— these or any of the other of a 
score or more— none of which are definite enough 
to furnish the base for a secure conclusion. 

Nearly all historians agree that the later and 
principal tribes, the Toltecs, Chichimean and Az- 
tecs, came from a northerly direction, from Ari- 
zona and CaUfornia. The Toltecs 
Toltecs. came about the middle of the sixth cen- 
tury. While little is known of them, 
since their'written records have perisned, it Is un- 
derstood that they were well instructed in agri- 
culture, architecture, etc. In fact Toltec now is a 
synonym for architecture. They built their cap- 
ital at Tula, north of the Mexican valley. Many 
evidences of their extensive buildings remained 
until the time of the Conquest. For four hundred 
and fifty years the Toltecs held sway, but after 
famine and pestilence they left the country about 
1116A. D. 

Next in order came the Chichimean from the 

same direction and began to build up a still higher 

civilization. Their empire began about 1170 A. D. 

and lasted until 1521 A. D., ac- 

Chichimean. cording to Lord Kingsborough's 

valuable works. That is, they 

were one of the tribes to hold out to the end of 



126 Mexico^ Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

Ihe Spanish Conquest. Their civilization, while 
exhibiting traits of barbarism, showed that they 
had chiefs and governors, and that they worship- 
ped the sun. They were extremely religious. 

The Aztecs were the last of the migrating tribes 
to reach the country from the north. They came 
in the year 1196 A. D., and settled in the same 
valley of Mexico. After some eight 
Aztecs. years of feuds and battles they began 
to intermarry in royal families, and 
then was formed that remarkable league that 
Prescott thus describes in his "Conquest of 
Mexico": 

*^It was agreed between the empires of Mexico, 
Tezcoco, and the neighboring little kingdom of 
Tlacopan, that they would mutually support each 

other in their wars, of- 
Remarkable Indian fensive and defensive, and 
Peace Conference. that in the distribution of 

spoils one-fifth should be 
assigned to Tlacopan and the remainder to be di- 
vided among the others. It is said that a century 
passed and they had not quarrelled over the 
spoils." 

In this Aztec civilization, or early Mexican 
confederation of Vv^hich the Aztecs were the lead- 
ers, a judicial and military system was 
Judicial inaugurated. Although a monarchy. 
System, and therefore despotic, the judicial sys- 



History, Ancient and Colonial 127 

tern was possibly better than legislative halls. 
Among a crude and ignorant people it is 
easier to make laws than to enforce them. And 
it is better to enforce them without having them 
than to have them without enforcing them. Under 
the Aztec system each city had its judge appoint- 
ed by the chief. This judge had absolute juris- 
diction in all cases. No appeal could be taken, 
not even to the throne. The judge held office du- 
ring life, and if he was ever guilty of being bribed 
he was punished with death, although it is not 
known just how this verdict was reached. 

They had a regular system of taxation. The 
revenues for the support of the government were 
gathered by appointed collectors. A 
Taxes, system of assessment of all crowned 
heads and all agricultural and manufac- 
turing products was arranged and proper col- 
lections made. Any default in a collector was 
punished either by slavery or death. 

Communication was carried on by couriers 
stationed about six miles apart. These runners 

sometimes ran as far as 
Communication and one hundred and fifty miles 
Military Afifairs. in a day. Their armies were 

divided into companies of 
eight thousand, subdivided into squads of four 
hundred, each squad with a special commander. 



128 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrozv 

The Aztec civilization was easily far in advance 
of all the other early tribes of North America. 

The colonial history of Mexico properly begins 
with the beginning of the Spanish Conquest. 
A few years after Christopher Colum- 
Colonial bus had discovered the West India 
History. Islands, one of the servants of the 
house of the Columbuses, Diego Ve- 
lasquez, was appointed colonial governor of the 
Island of Espanola in the year 151 1 A. D. Some- 
time afterward he was transferred to the Island of 
Cuba. But he was not satisfied to occupy him- 
self with the affairs of Cuba and began at once 
to explore all the surrounding islands and shores 
of the New World. 

Velasquez having heard much of the shining 

metal and opportunities for booty on the main 

land of Mexico, decided to send 

Velasquez an expedition to search out this 
Sends Cortez. land on his own responsibility 
and for his personal gain, with- 
out any connection whatever with the home land. 
So he fitted out a crew and sent them under the 
direction and command of his private secretary, 
Don Hernando Cortez. 

Cortez with his vessels, five hundred soldiers, 



■ History, Ancient and Colonial 129 

one hundred and ten marines and several hundred 
Indians and horses, armed with 
Cortez Lands muskets, cross-bows, four fal- 
In Vera-Cruz. conets, and ten pieces of artil- 
lery, landed in San Juan de Ulua 
(Vera Cruz) the last of February, 15 19. 

Moctezuma, the Aztec emperor, Mexican king, 
had heard of the coming- of the Spaniards and 
wished to prevent any interference with the af- 
fairs of his empire. So he ar- 

Royal ranged a royal reception with many 
Reception, costly presents, consisting of a disc 
of gold as large as a carriage wheel 
representing the rays of the sun ; another of silver, 
with all kinds of fabrics, curtains and laces of fine 
hand needle work. Cortez made them a speech, 
telling them that he represented the greatest 
king of the earth who had sent him to visit them 
and arrange some important affairs among them. 
He asked for an audience with the Emperor. 
The Aztec representative replied tliat he had 
listened with pleasure to what he said about the 
greatness of his king, but that he knew that his 
king, Moctezuma, was not less bountiful and 
great, and doubted if there existed in the world 
andther greater /and more powerful than he. 
But he said that he would communicate the mess- 
age of Cortez to his king and hoped he would 
grant his request and arrange a meeting. 



130 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

This was poor diplomacy on the part of Moc- 

teziima, for gold discs like that (worth $100,000 

according to reliable estimates) 

Poor were not calculated to turn the 

Diplomacy. Spaniards easily away from a land 

so rich in precious metals. It was 

the wrong kind of bait for Cortez, for it is said 

that he acknowledged having that kind of a 

disease. 

Cortez at once set up an independent colony 
with a row of skulls for pickets. He cut loose 
from all connections and responsibility 
First whatever with his superior^ the Em- 
Colony, peror of Cuba, and to keep his dissatis- 
fied soldiers from deserting him for his 
disloyalty, sank all his ships except one little one 
to use in sending to Spain presents and news. 
He told his men the boats sank from injuries 
received from insects in those tropical waters. 

Several friendly messages were exchanged be- 
tween the Emperor Moctezuma and Cortez, one 
of the messages being accompanied by an elabo- 
rate present to Cortez, which he 
Messages and sent to Charles V., opening up 
Presents. communication direct with the 
home land in the hope of reaping 
the honors of conquest for himself and not an- 
other. This elaborate gift was sent in July of the 
same year and consisted, according to Bancroft, 



' * History, Ancient and Colonial 131 

of "two wheels ten hands in diameter, one in gold 
with the image of the sun, and the other of silver 
with the image of the moon upon it; both formed 
of plates of these metals, with different figures ot 
animals and other things in basso-relievo, finish- 
ed with great ingenuity and art; a gold necklace 
composed of seven pieces with one hundred and 
eighty-three small emeralds set in it, and two 
hundred and thirty-two gems similar to small 
rubies, from which hung twenty-seven little bells 
of gold and some pearls. Another necklace of 
four pieces of gold, with one hundred and 
two red gems like small rubies, one hun- 
dred and seventy-two emeralds and ten fine 
pearls set in, with twenty-six little bells 
of gold. A head-piece of wood covered with 
gold and adorned with gems, from which hung 
twenty-five little bells of gold; instead of a plume 
it had a green bird with eyes, beak and feet of 
gold; a bracelet of gold; a little rod like a scepter 
with two rings of gold at its extremities set with 
pearls; four tridents adorned with feathers of 
various colors, with pearl points tied with gold 
thread; several shoes of the skin of the deer sew- 
ed with gold thread, the soles of which were made 
of blue and white stone of ItzH, extremely thin; 
a shield of wood and leather with little bells hang- 
ing to it and covered with plates of gold in the 
middle on which was cut the image of the god of 



132 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

war between four heads of a lion, a tiger, an 
eagle and an owl, represented alive with their 
hair and feathers; several dressed skins of quad- 
rupeds and birds with their plumage and hair; 
twenty-four curious and beautiful shields of gold; 
four fishes, two ducks and some other birds of 
cast gold; a crocodile girt with threads of gold; 
a large mirror adorned with gold and many small 
ones; several miters and crowns of gold and feath- 
ers ornamented with pearls and gems; several 
large plumes of beautiful feathers of various col- 
ors fretted with gold and pearls. Several fans of 
gold and feathers together; a variety of cotton 
mantles, some all white, others checkered with 
white, black or red, etc. ; a number of waistcoats, 
handkerchiefs, counterpanes, tapestries and car- 
pets of cotton of finest work." 

Cortez eviden!Iy meant to attract the attention 
and gain the confidence of the Spanish throne in 
his field of conquest. Feeling no doubt that his 

first little presents would place him 
Conquest right in the sight of the throne, and. 
Begun. hurried on by his greed for gold, 

Cortez started out from Vera Cruz 
on the i6th of August, 15 19, on his mis- 
sion of conquest. He first passed through 
the RepubHc of Tlascala, a state or tribe 
that was now ready to fight Moctezuma 
and were keen to join in with the Spaniards to 



History, Ancient and Colonial 133 

march against him. When they finally arrived at 
the city of Moctezuma they accepted a friendly 
entrance, but Cortez felt as they passed the draw- 
bridges that they were easily in a trap. Mocte- 
zuma met and embraced Cortez, giving him many 
rich gifts, and assigned his army quarters. 

Almost immediately after they had made their 
camp, and while they partook of their meal, Moc- 
tezuma called without any pre- 
First arranged date. He enquired care- 

Conference, fully into all the interests of Spain, 
. collecting data of all names and 
ranks of leaders in the islands and on the main 
land of Mexico. Cortez said little, only dropping 
a hint that he had come to visit him and to preach 
the Christian faith to him. 

The Spaniards celebrated their arrival in the 
city the first night by many cannon salutes. Cor- 
tez wanted to augment the superstitious ideas of 
the Aztecs that the white foreign- 
First Powder ers held the Hghtnings and thun- 
Burnt in ders in their hands. The next 

New World. morning Cortez went to return 
the call of the Emperor. He was 
kindly received in the royal palace. This visit 
was taken up with Cortez trying to persuade the 
Emperor from the religious errors of his ways, 
telling him that the idols that he worshipped were 
Satan in different forms. He told him that the 



134 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

bloody sacrifices that he offered were unneces- 
sary; that a simple rite of mass — eating the 
broken body and drinking the shed blood of the 
Lord — was all that was necessary. But Mocte- 
zuma, steeped in the barbarism and superstition 
of his day, evidently thought that it was no 
greater offense to eat the flesh of a human being 
than it would be to eat that of the Lord, and so 
he failed to be converted. 

Days passed; they had now been in the city a 
week with no progress made. Cortez knew that 
the Emperor would soon become tired of such an 
expense, and especially of the presence and enter- 
tainment of those he hated as he 

vSlow hated the Tlacalas. He knew that 
Progress, the soldiers would be hard to control 
if unemployed; especially had he no- 
ticed the restlessness of his Indian allies. He had 
heard also of trouble back in the new colony, 
where several Spaniards had been killed, and that 
Moctezuma was responsible. Something had to 
be done. He called a council of war. Some 
wanted to retreat from the city at night; others 
to retreat by day with the approval of the Em- 
peror. But to leave the city nothing would be 
gained, Christ's banner would not be set up, and 
more especially, no gold would be obtained. 

Cortez resolved upon the most daring under- 
taking known in the annals of time. He proposed 



History, Ancient and Colonial 135 

to kidnap the King— to march to the royal palace 
and bring Moctezuma to the Spanish quarters, 

by friendly methods if possible, 

Kidnaped the but by force if necessary. He 

King. stationed his soldiers about the 

avenues leading to the palace, 
went in alone to engage the Emperor in a friend- 
ly talk. But had arranged with twenty-five of his 
trusties to drop in, as if by accident, two or three 
at a time. During the friendly and sportive con- 
versation the Emperor had given Cortez, as 
usual, many nice presents, including one of his 
daughters in marriage (which Cortez declined). 
When enough of the trusties had come in, Cortez 
changed the tone of conversation by informing 
the Emperor that some depredations had been 
committed down in Vera Cruz at his suggestion. 
The Emperor stoutly denied any knowledge of 
the affairs, and calling to him his page ordered 
that the best corps of detectives at his court be 
sent immediately to the scene to bring the of- 
fenders to him. Cortez told him that that looked 
like innocence, but that it would be necessary for 
him to go with them to the Spanish quarters until 
it was settled. The Emperor protested against 
such a disgrace to the palace and people, and of- 
fered one of his sons and a daughter as hostages. 
But after much discussion and an impatient ad- 
dress by one of Cortez' mantled soldiers, inform- 



J 36 Mexico, Yesterday , Today and Tomorrow 

ing the Emperor in rough tones that they did not 
want any more talk, that if he resisted further he 
would run his sword through him, he quietly went 
with them. 

The news of the capture of the Emperor spread 
through the Aztec city. Mobs gathered all 
around, but Moctezuma climbed upon the wall 
and told them that he was there of 
Effect on his own will only on a friendly visit, 
People. and they dispersed for the time being. 
There were hot battles from day to 
day, with the Spaniards always conquering. The 
Emperor was given an easy life in camp, being 
offered his freedom, which was refused. He had 
an interview with his nobles and swore allegiance 
to Spain. 

A sudden break occurred in the progress of the 

conquest when Cortez heard that the Spaniards 

were after him. Velasquez, colonial governor of 

Cuba, had determined to seek 

Velasquez revenge on Cortez for having 

Seeks Revenge, thrown oflf his authority and 
treating direct with Spain. So 
in March, 1520, he disatched to Mexico a crew 
under the leadership of Narvez to capture Cortez. 
This small army landed at Vera Cruz in April. 
So it was necessary for Cortez to leave the work 
now well in hand and look after this new foe. 
He accordingly put Alvarado in charge of the sit- 



History, Ancient and Colonial 137 

nation in the capital, and with a picked little army 
went to meet his Spanish foe — something new on 
his unwritten program. He experienced no diffi- 
culty in gaining allies along the way, and soon 
began to exchange messages with Narvez. He 
always succeeded in bribing the embassies 
sent to him by Narvez. The story of gold 
wedges had Narvez's army conquered by 
silver swords before they met. They finally 
met in battle at Cempoalla where Narvez was 
wounded and captured without much fighting. 
Cortez dismantled all the ships that Narvez had 
brought over, allowed his soldiers to enter his 
(Cortez) army ranked as before, and all hurried 
back to the capital, where trouble was brewing. 
On returning to the City of Mexico, Cortez 

pressed the battles. One day when 
Death of the mobs were storming the bar- 

Moctezuma. racks Moctezuma, at the earnest 

solicitation of Cortez, climbed to 
the top of the wall and made them a speech. He 
said, according to Bancroft: ''Why do I see my 
people here in arms against the palace of my 
fathers? Is it that you think your sovereign a 
prisoner, and wish to release him? If so, you 
have acted rightly. But you are mistaken: I am 
no prisoner. The strangers are my guests. I re- 
main with them only from choice and can leave 
them at will. Have you come to drive them from 



138 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

the city? That is unnecessary. They will leave 
of their own accord if you will open a way for 
them. Return to your homes and lay down your 
arms. Show your obedience to me who has a 
right to it. The white men shall go back to their 
own land and all shall be well again within the 
walls of Tenochtitlan." 

But this speech only m.ade the people more fu- 
rious to think that he was a friend to their foes, 
and during a spirited attack Moctezuma was 
struck in the head with a stone from which he 
died, having refused all medical aid, on June 30, 
1520. He expired in the arms of his own nobles 
after committing his children to the care of Cor- 
tez. 

There seemed now only one course to pursue — 
to leave the city. But just how and when was 
the question. That ever-present astrologer, who 
still tells people when to plant water- 
Flan to melons, was there and told them to 
Evacuate, start at midnight. They were all 
more or less superstitious, and the 
suggestion of the mysterious astrologer, Botello, 
took like magic. They did not have time to get 
ready, for Cortez built only one portable bridge 
when he should have built three for the three 
canals in the causeway that led out of the city. 

They prepared to leave the city at midnight, 
July T, 1520, A. D. Mass was said by Father 



History, Ancient and Colonial 139 

Olmedo. The special corps of soldiers took up 
the portable bridge and start- 
Noche Triste. cd out ahead, followed by 
(Sad Night.) the picked guard with the 
rich treasures. C o r t e z told 
the soldiers who looked wistfully at a large 
heap of gold and silver bullion they had 
left because of its weight, to take for themselves 
all they wished, but to remember that *'he travels 
Scjfest in a dark night who travels lightest." 
They soon reached the first canal and threw the 
portable bridge across. As they began to pass 
over some Indian guards stationed there sent up 
a "warwhoop" that woke the city and brought 
down through every street and splashing through 
the lake ten thousand oars and clubs and cross- 
bows. Hundreds were thrown from the causeway 
into the lake, pierced with a javelin or beaten 
with a club. The Spaniards had no time to fight, 
but madly pushed on in their difficult way. The 
advance guard soon reached the second canal, 
the center of attack, where thousands awaited to 
fight. They halted and called in vain for the port- 
able bridge. It took time for several thousand to 
pass where only ten or fifteen could go abreast. 
At last, with fierce fighting on every hand, those 
not killed were over. The special corps attempt- 
ed to lift the portable bridge to cut off the enemy 
as well as to place it over the canal in front, but 



140 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

they could not move it. It was fast stuck in the 
mud. In vain they tried until they died. In de- 
spair a wail of woe rent the air that drowned the 
splash and noise of battle. People, wild, passed 
forward tramping upon each other. The leaders 
with the treasures leaped into the second breach, 
some to sink forever, others who swam across 
fell backward or were pushed by the enemy from 
the steep, slippery banks into the water to strug- 
gle and die. In a few moments the struggling, 
dead and dying people and liorses, carts and can- 
non filled up the gap over which the rest hurried- 
ly passed. Hotly pursued and fought they soon 
reached the third and last canal, where a similar 
bridge of flesh, carts and treasure let some over 
to rush on from the maddened enemy. 

After several skirmishes and one hard fought 
battle at Otumba they arrived at Tlascala where 

a warm reception awaited 
Hearty Reception them. This was the home of 

in Tlascala. their first allies. Here they 

took a rest, and received 
many aliles and recruits and provisions from over 
the sea. 

On the death of Moctezuma his brother 
Cuitlahuac took the throne and ruled for four 
months, when he died of smallpox. Then his 
nephew, Guatemozin, was chosen. 
Afitairs in He was young, being only 

The Capital. twenty-five years of age, a white 



History, Ancient and Colonial 141 

man hater, but brave as a lion. He began at 
once through spies to ascertain the whereabouts 
and movements of the Spaniards. 

After resting and being recruited, on the 24th 
of December, 1520, Cortez reviewed his army of 
a hundred thousand strong, sent most of them to 
Vera Cruz to build ships for future operations 
c'nd make a living for themselves, and took the 
trained and truest and turned his face 
Back to again to the capital of Aztec Mexico. 
Mexico. Along their march they had practically 
no opposition. The towns were imme- 
diately evacuated on their arrival. The last of 
May, 1621, A. D., they reached the city. 

On their approach to the city they fought a 
fierce battle over the aqueduct that carried water 
from the royal streams of Chepultepec to the city, 
and succeeded in cutting it off. They 
Blockade, stopped all supplies from entering the 
city, thus the siege began. But too 
impatient to wait on a blockade, Cortez ordered 
a simultaneous attack. For hours the Spaniards 
won at every point, but at last the horn of Guate- 
mozin sounded and the Aztecs rallied and drove 
*hem from the city with heavy loss. On the out- 
skirts of the city' they rested eight days, while 
Guatemozin exhibited the heads of some of Cor- 
tez's best men and thus induced some of the allies 
to return to their homes. The blockade was 



142 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

easily kept up, however, and the city was at once 
famine-stricken. There was left only one thing 
for the city to do, but the Emperor could not see 
it. In vain Cortez tried to get Guatemozin to see 
the doom of his people and surrender, but nothing 
but death would satisfy them. So on August 13, 
1 52 1, A. D., they re-entered the city, and having 
all advantages, tried again to get the 
Fall of haughty monarch to surrender, but to 
Capital, no avail. Then began one of the 
bloodiest battles the New World had 
yet seen. The Emperor Guatemozin was cap- 
tured and fighting ceased. An eternal stain will 
remain on the name of Cortez for the treatment 
of this royal prisoner. When put to the torture 
with one of his friends, who groaned pitiably un- 
buked him by saying, "Do you think that I am 
taking my pleasure in my bath " They did not 
tell where the large gold discs were, however. 

The Conquest being over, they went to settle 

other colonies, to rebuild their 

Reconstruction, desolated cities, and to open up 

rich mines and farming lands. 

The three hundred years of Spanish rule after 

the Conquest, under the seventy-one distinct 

leaders or cabinets, contains little of real interest 



History, Ancient and Colonial 143 

or progress. About all you can say 
Progress of the happenings during the major- 
Backward, ity of the terms of the Viceroys is 
that Popocatepetl belched forth 
some fresh lava or Rome gave birth to a new Bull. 
(Bull-fights were thoroughly established.) To 
spill so much blood over tearing down an idol to 
place another in its stead is hardly justifiable be- 
fore a civilized court. 

Some of the first Viceroys were better than 
those who came later. Antonio de Mendoza, the 
first, reigned sixteen years and did 
Mendoza. some things worthy of notice. He 
printed the first book in Mexico, 
in the year 1636 and coined the first silver and 
copper. He founded some of the principal cities. 
The second Viceroy, Luis de Velasco, reigned 
fourteen years and liberated one hun- 
Velasco. dred and fifty thousand Indian slaves. 
He also founded some good schools. 
The first Bishop of Mexico, D. Juan de Zu- 
maraga had all the old Indian 
Unpardonable records burned, an unpardonable 
Deeds. sin against history and civili- 

zation. 
The fourth Viceroy had the dishonor of estab- 
lishing the terrible Inquisition in 1571 A. D. 
This was D. Martin Enriquez de Almanza, who 



144 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

was the first of the Inquisitors. Directly from the 
throne civil to the ecclesiastical 
Inquisition, throne shows how well cemented the 
two were. Of all the horrors of the 
Inquisition we cannot speak, but some of the 
most inhuman acts accredited to man on the 
pages of history were committed in these years. 
Marcos Lopez de Rueda, the twentieth Viceroy 
and Bishop of Yucatan, had fifteen people burned 
as heretics among whom was the noted Tomas 
Trevino. '^The Inquisition was the apotheosis of 
autocratic tyranny. It not only attacked the right 
of the individual to civil liberty, to freedom of 
person in the material concerns of life, but car- 
ried the havoc of an unfeeling tyranny into the 
still more sacred realm of the spirit." — (Dr. G. B. 
Winton, in his New Era in Old Mexico). "For 
three hundred years the clergy governed Mexico 
by means of bishops and archbishops seated on 
the thrones of the Viceroys. They even held the 
lay viceroys in their power under the threat of ex- 
communication. The clergy served as friendly 
arbiters among the peoples recently converted. 
They legislated in their very missions. They mo- 
nopolized public education. They became cap- 
italists and in their acts of usury far surpassed 
the Shylocks of the Middle Ages. The Jesuits 
were their secret police and the Inquisition was a 
living tomb. They raised cathedrals of mocking 



History, Ancient and Colonial 145 

splendor and built great convents and churchly 
retreats, hile the Viceroys built jails, mints, and 
lax offices. They fixed civil time to the exigences 
of numerous feasts and religious practices. They 
mingled the Indian and Spaniard in one flock, 
and merged God and the pope into two invisible 
sovereignties." — (Speech of Ignacio Ramirez be- 
fore the Lyceum of Mexico City). 

The colonial days pointed the people to God 
through images other than suffering, bloody hu- 
man sacrifices, and in this lifted 
Colonial the country to a higher humani- 

Days Close, tarian plane, but by the horrors 
of the Inquisition tried to de- 
grade the people into mummies. And while 
they were throwing off the shackles of phys- 
ical slavery from thousands of their sub- 
jects, they were through the horrors of the 
Inquisition saddling onto the same liberated 
treemen a slavery a thousandfold worse — that of 
mind and conscience. We do not wonder that 
such a liberator as Hidalgo, while under such 
infamous charges as that of "reading books," 
should resent punishment with a firm determina- 
tion to liberate his country from such diabolical 
crimes, even with his blood. 



146 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

Chronological List of All Colonial Governors and 
High Courts from the Triumph of the Conquest 
to the Triumph of Independence — Three Hun- 
dred Years of Spanish Rule, 1521 to 1821, A.D. 

Conquerors and Courts. A. D. 

1. D. Fernando Cortez 1521 

2. Luis Ponce 1526 

3. D. Marcos Aguilar 

4. D. Alonzo Estrada y Gonzalo Sandoval 1527 

5. Gonzalo de Sandoval 

Nuno de Guzman. 

6. Juan Ortiz Matienzo, First High Court 1528 
Diego Delgadillo. 

Sebastian Ramirez de Fuenleal. 
Juan Salmeron. 

7. Alonzo Maldonado, second High Court 1529 
Francisco Ceynos. 

Vasco de Quiroga. 



Viceroys or Colonial Governors. 

D. Antonio de Mendoza 1535 

Luis de Velasco • 1536 

Gaston de Peralta 1550 

Martin Enriquez de Almanza 1568 

Lorenzo de Mendoza 1580 

Pedro Moya de Contreras 1584 

Alvaro Manrique de Zuniga 1585 



History, Ancient and Colonial 147 

8. Luis de Velasco (the second) 1590 

9. Caspar de Zuniga i595 

10. Juan de Mendoza 1603 

11. Luis de Velasco (second time) 1607 

12. Fray Garcia Guerra 161 1 

13. Diego Fernandez de Cordova 1612 

14. Diego Carrillo Mendoza 1621 

15. Rodrigo Pacheco Osorio ,..1624 

16. Lopez Diaz de Armendariz 1635 

3 y. Diego Lopez Pacheco 1640 

18. Juan de Palafox y Mendoza 1642 

19. Garcia Sarmiento 

20. Marcos Lopez de Rueda 1648 

21. Luis Enriquez de Guzman 1650 

22. Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva ....1657 

23. Juan de la Cerda 1660 

24. Diego Osorio Escobar 1664 

25. Antonio Sebastian de Toledo 

26. Pedro Nuno de Colon 1673 

27. Fr. Payo de Rivera 

28. Tomas Antonio de la Cerda 1680 

29. Melchor Portocarredo 1686 

30. Caspar de la Cerda 1688 

31. Juan Ortega Montanez 1696 

32. Jose Sarmiento y Valladares 

33. Juan Ortega y Montanez (second time) 1707 

34. Francisco Fernandez de la Cueva .... 

35. Fernando de Alencastre 171 1 

36. Baltasar de Zuniga 1716 



148 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

37. Juan de Acuna 1722 

38. Antonio Vizarron 1734 

39. Pedro de Castro y Figueroa 1740 

40. Pedro Cebrian y Agustin 1742 

41. Francisco Guemes y Horcasitas 

42. Agustin Ahumada 

43. Francisco Cafigal de la Vega 1760 

44. Joaquin de Monserrat 

45. Carlos Francisco de Croix 1766 

46. Antonio Maria de Bucareli 1771 

47. Martin de Mayorga 1779 

^S. Martias de Galvez 1783 

49. Bernardo de Galvez 1785 

50. Alonzo Nunez de Harro 1787 

51. Manuel Antonio Flores 1787 

52. Juan Vicente Guemes de Pacheco 1789 

53. Miguel de la Grua Talamanca 1794 

54. Miguel Jose de Azana 1798 

55. Felix Berenguer de Marquina 1800 

56. Jose de Iturrigaray 1803 

57. Pedro Garibay 1808 

58. Francisco Javier Venegas 18 — 

59. Pedro Catani, presidente de la Audencia 1810 

60. Francisco Javier Venegas 

61. Felix Calleja 1813 

62. Juan Ruiz de Apodaca i8i6 

63. Francisco Novella 1821 

64. Juan O'Donoju 



n 



CHAPTER IX. 

History — Independence. 

T HAS been said by one that ''the history 
of a country is the history of her 
heroes." This fact is certainly true in 
regard to the history of the Independ- 
ence of Mexico. It is impossible to know Mexi- 
can independence without studying the life of 
Hidalgo. It is impossible to understand the 

reformation without a know- 
Hidalgo, Mexico's ledge of the ideals of 
Washington. Juarez, and peace and pro- 

gress in Mexico could not 
be thought of unlinked with the name of Porfirio 
Diaz. The heroes of Mexico, like the eaglets, 
were nested high up in the bosom of the moun- 
tains. And to understand a great man you must 
know his mother. If we could transport our- 
selves back to the year one thousand seven hun- 
dred and fifty-three, and to the city of Guan- 
ajuato, we would find resting on the lap of a 
young mother a little boy whose eyes were as 
blue as the sky above him and whose character 
and will were to be as grand and as sturdy as the 



150 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

granite hills that surrounded him. The eighth of 
May was his birthday and hijs cradle the ranch of 
San Vicente. His mother could neither read nor 
write, but by the influence of her life and the 
purity of her soul, she engraved forever in the 
tender heart of her offspring the words "patria" 
and "libertad." Milton said "The boy is father 
to the man," and another writer has expressed 
the same thought in '^The boy shows the man 
like the morning shows the day." It was so in 
the case of Hidalgo. He was a revolutionist 
from the earliest period of his childhood to his 
glorious death. While in school he was called 
*'E1 Zoro" (The Fox) on account of his shrewd- 
ness and wonderful intellect. And later when he 
became president of his alma mater he changed 
the text-books and introduced new methods of 
teaching, thus challenging the wise and proud 
Spaniards. 

According to the ideals of the Roman Church, 
as a priest Hidalgo was a failure. The stupid 
routine of the priesthood had no place in his pro- 
gram. He would rise very early in 
A Failure the mornirxgs and go out over the 
as Priest. country from farm to farm, dressed 
not in the garb of the priests but in 
plain cittizen's dress, with a shining, pleasant face 
under a wide-brim hat, to give to all his neigh- 
bors practical lessons on farming, and at thti 



History — Independence. 151 

same time to sow in the hearts of the future he- 
roes of Anahuac the seeds of Hberty and inde- 
pendence. Socially he was interesting and charm- 
ing. He had read widely and thought deeply, 
and when he spoke people were ready and eager 
to hear him, for he never failed to feed them, 
and to feed them on something new and interest- 
ing, for they had not read for themselves. 

This wide reading, however, cost him dearly. 
The Santo Tribunal, as the Inquisition was called, 
fixed its eyes upon him and a secret suit was 
brought against him. He was 
Church Court accused of having denied the 
Charges. existence of hell; of having said 

that he was a follower of Lu- 
ther, and that one of the popes was in hell; that 
he did not believe in the story of the Bible and in 
the ministry of Mary. And so they said that he 
was a heretic and deserved the most cruel pun- 
ishment that could be imposed upon the worst 
impostors. 

His answers to these charges were prompt and 

pointed. ''How can I," said he, "deny that there 

is such a place as hell, and later state that one of 

the reverend fathers is in hell? It 

His Wise cannot be possible for me to be the 

Answer. follower of Luther and to deny the 

Bible, for he claimed to follow it. 

And about the heresy of which I arn. accuseds I 



152 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

would like to know the new dogma that compels 
me to be a slave in order to be a Roman Cath- 
olic." 

In the year 1810 this venerable old hero was 
kept busy in his curacy (parsonage) at Dolores, 
taking every precaution while he 
Secret manufactured arms; and by 

Preparations, means of secret societies he was 
preparing his leaders for the 
great work of independence. Queretaro was the 
headquarters of the revolutionists. The wife of 
the mayor of the city, of whom it has been said 
that she was the mother on whose lap Mexican 
independence was rocked, ofifered her home for 
all their secret meetings and used her great in- 
fluence and wealth for the propagation of the 
cause. Although she could not write she kept 
the insurgents (name by which the revolutionists 
were known) well informed by sending them let- 
ters made by cutting out words she needed from 
newspapers and pasting them in lines as she 
wished to talk. She was betrayed, however, and 
locked in her own home by her own husband. 
But even then she used her jailer as a messenger 
to notify Hidalgo. That message was sent to a 
hero and made a Washington. 

One of Mexico's worthy sons describes that in- 
spiration of freedom's declaration in these words ; 



History — Independence. 1^^ 

"It was on the fifteenth of Sep- 
Independence tember. The night was dark and 
Proclaimed. mysterious. In one of the rooms 
of the Dolores curate, in a small 
town of Guanjuato is a man who reads and medi- 
tates. His mind is busy and his thoughts are 
engaged in the solution of a problem. Suddenly 
the noise of a horseman disturbs that man in 
whose hands rested the destiny of the Mexican 
Republic. The horseman, reaching this mansion, 
gives him a letter, and after a careful reading our 
hero expressed himself in these emphati^c words: 
'Sirs, there is no other chance than to kill Span- 
iards.' At last the Washington of Mexico had 
come. Hidalgo had to proclaim and die for her 
independence. He was to teach Spain once more 
that the reign of iniquity was over, and these 
words are a genuine expression of his iron will. 
From this moment he waited with anxiety for the 
sublime hour in which he would proclaim free- 
dom for hi3 country; and when the light of the 
sixteenth comes the people of Dolores hear 
from the lips of their great redeemer the cry that 
would later 'on immortalize his name: "Long life 
to the Independence of Mexico, death to the bad 
government!' "~(E. B. Vergas in Southwestern 
University Magazine.) 



154 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

The ignorant Indians could not grasp the 

meaning of Hberty, but full of faith and confidence 

in their leader they were ready to 

Hostilities follow him unto death. A series of 

Begun. splendid victories followed their lit- 
tle company of a handful of men 
and it soon increased to si'xty thousand. Several 
of the officers of the royal army had joined the 
insurgents under Hidalgo, through the influence 
of Dona Josefa Ortiz de Dominguez, the matron 
of Queretaro-Allende. Abarola, Aldama and 
Camaggo were products of her faithful work. 
These great leaders proved to be worthy follow- 
ers of their leader. 

The first city that was taken was Guanajuato. 

Riano, the faithful Spanish general, fought with 

remarkable bravery, but all in vain, 

First City for Hidalgo's forces were defending 

Taken. liberty and such soldiers are invinci- 
ble. After this battle, which was 
fought on the twenty-eighth of September, the in- 
surgents began their march on the capital. They 
were encountered and engaged in battle with the 
Spanish troops who had been sent out from, the 
city to capture them on the thirtieth of October 
at a place called El Monte de las Cruces. It was 
a glorious day fox the Mexican patriots. They 
completely routed and captured the enemy, leav- 
ing a wide open way to the city with no Spanish 
troops to defend it. 



History — Independence, 155 

One word "Forward" from Hidalgo at this op- 
portune moment surely would have settled Span- 
ish rule in Mexico forever. But it was not so to 
be. Like the Israelites, they halted 
Disasters on the border of their God-given 
of Delays, possessions, and turned back to fight 
unnecessary battles and die, leav- 
ing the glorious entrance to others. The blood- 
iest battle of the American Revolution, at Savan- 
nah, Ga., was caused by our general allowing the 
Briitish twenty-four hours to decide whether they 
would surrender or not. After they were fortified 
they said, "Come and take it." And then began 
one of the bloodiest scenes of the war, when it 
could have been taken without the firing of a 
gun. But liberty is a costly jewel and Mexico 
was not to have it cheap. Streams of blood were 
to flow ere they should have the white-winged 
dove of peace poise over their land. So Hidalgo 
turned back for the "struggles of the wilderness." 
Before he left Guanjuato, however, he organized 
a splendid city government, established a mint 
and a cannon factory. Then when he turned his 
face from Mexico City and towards Guadalajara 
to set up his goverment, his troubles began. 

Not being satisfied with a constantly victorious 
march on the capital, the insurgents turned back 



156 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

to fight again the soldiers in the conquered ter- 
ritory. So on the seventh of 
Backing Into September they had a bloody en- 
Difficulties, counter with the Spaniards under 
General Calleja. No victory was 
won on either side, but Hidalgo set out to Guad- 
alajara where he proceeded to organize his gov- 
ernment. He made some severe laws against 
abuses, trying to protect property, and especially 
the family, and abolishing forever slavery. (In 
this he is said to have been greater than Wash- 
ington.) The Spanish army collected and concen- 
tiated their forces and entered and recaptured 
the poorly protected Guanajuato after much 
fighting. Then the elated victorious army start- 
ed out for Hidalgo at Guadalajara. 

The opposing foes met thirty-six miles from 

Guadalajara at Calderon where a great battle 

was fought. Hidalgo's army was much larger 

than the Spanish, but undisciplijied 

Hidalgo, and untrained and fearfully ignorant. 
Loses Out. It is true to history that hundreds 
of his Indians on this occasion ran 
up to the mouths of the cannon of the Spaniards 
and stuffed in them their old hats, thinking that 
if they could get an old hat in the mouth it would 
stop the cannon from belching forth fire. They 
had used the same plan in the battle at Las 
Cruces. But despite all the ignorance and lack 



History — Independence. 157 

of training Hidalgo's soldiers were on the eve of 
a great victory when a cannon ball struck their 
powder supply causing a great explosion and fire, 
completely demoralizing the independents, and 
determined the victory for the Spaniards. Many 
historians have estimated Hidalgo's forces in 
this battle as numbering between eighty and one 
hundred thousand, but more reliable authority 
places it at thirty thousand. Hidalgo never re- 
covered from the loss of this battle. His men 
deposed him from the generalship of the army, 
putting Ignacio AUende in his place. 

The leaders with the fragments of their army 
started to Saltillo with the intention of contin- 
uing to the United States. While in Saltillo, Al- 
lende denied a promotion that had 
Traitor's been asked of him by an officer, Igna- 

Hand. cio Elizondo. This refusal was the 
direct cause of the treason that ended 
in the execution of the first heroes of Mexican in- 
dependence. Elizondo, advised by Bishop Fili- 
ciano Marin, of Monterey, made them believe 
they were all in sympathy with the independent 
movement, and succeeded in taking the heroes 
prisoners at a little place called Acatita de Bajan 
on March 21, 181 1. 

The prisoners of war were taken to Monclova 
and from there to the city of Chihuahua, where 



168 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

the father of Mexican Independence was excom- 
municated by the church authorities 
Hidalgo, and shot on July 30, 181 1. On the day 
Shot. of the execution he was asked by his 
executioners for his last will and tes- 
tament, when he took out from under hi,s pillow 
some pieces of candy and divided them among 
the soldiers that were to shoot him, assuring 
them that he had nothing against them, and ask- 
ed that they would not aim at his head but at the 
spot indicated by his hand. He placed his right 
hand over his heart and a bullet went through his 
hand without touching his heart. So passed the 
great heio; but "though dead he yet speaketh." 
Enshrined in the hearts of his countrymen his 
right hand, though pierced with a ball, is pointing 
them upward and inspiring them to fight for 
their moral freedom even as he fought for inde- 
pendence. 

Before Allende left Saltillo on his journey to 
the United States he put Ignacio Rayon in as 
commander-in-chief, who promised to do all in 
his power to keep the spirit of inde- 
Rayon's pendence alive. Rayon proved to be 
Success, a great and daring general, equal 
to almost any undertaking. He 
started at once towards the capital. He left 
Saltillo on March 26th and after a distressing 
journey arrived in the city of Zacatecas. ThiiS 



History— Independence. 159 

city was taken with scarcely any resistance. 
Rayon had a small army, but he had all the wo- 
men dress as soldiers and at the very sight of 
such multitudes the city gave up. Having had 
such success with his little piece of strategy, he 
left at once for the city of Zitacuaro where he 
hoped to set up his government. On approach- 
ing the city he hung lanterns to thousands of 
donkeys and with his army ran them into the city 
at night. The Spanish army, not being prepared 
for an attack like that, left the city without cloth- 
ing or arms. And so this new Gideon was walk- 
ing right through the country, sweeping things as 
he went, and without doing much harm. With 
new allies, provisions and arms he established in 
the city of Zitacuaro a rallying center of the rev- 
olutionists. But Rayon was only a link in the 
chain of heroes, and without depreciatig his noble 
work we pass to the one greater than he who was 
to come after him. 

Napoleon said, ''With two soldiers like More- 
los I could conquer the world." Morelos was 
born in Valladolid September 30, I765. His 

early life was spent with his uncle 
Morelos. freighting with mules across all 

Southern Mexico, and he knew every 
path. So while some of these incidents were 
happening as already related, there was also 
something going on in the South. When Morelos 



160 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

was twenty-five years of age he entered the old 
San Nicholas College of which Hidalgo was pres- 
ident. He finished his course and was ordained 
priest, serving as such in the towns of Churumuco, 
Huacaua and Caracuaro. One evening as this 
popular padre was reading some religious book 
a friend of his brought him the news that Hidal- 
go had proclaimed independence. Saddling his 
mule and accompanied by his '^sacristan" he 
started out to have an interview with the great 
leader, his old teacher. A great historian has 
said that while in school the president, Hidalgo, 
had walked along the corridors with this distin- 
guished pupil talking about the independence of 
Mexico. When Morelos reached Hidalgo in a 
little town called Indaparapeo he asked to be ad- 
mitted as army chaplain. Hidalgo paused at this 
request, and after some moments of thought he 
said: ^'Not as chaplain but as general." So 
Morelos had been commissioned as general and 
sent to raise an army in the South of the Re- 
public. 

He accepted the commission, without money 
and without soldiers. His first army was com- 
posed of twenty-five men armed with sharp sticks, 

but the South soon answered the call 
His First of her new leader, and the twenty- 
Victories, five had grown into thousands, and 

they soon captured a supply of arms 
from their enemies. Victory after victory lined 



History — Independence. 1^1 

their path, and at last they had to prepare to 
meet the strongest division of the Spanish army, 
the one that had defeated and discouraged Hi- 
dalgo at Calderon. 

Morelos was in the city of Cuantla with an 
army of four thousand only when he was be- 
sieged by Calleja with twelve thousand Spaniards. 
This was the same general that had 
Siege in defeated Hidalgo. The siege began 
Cuantla. on February 15th and lasted until 
May 2nd. During this time the Span- 
iards made many efforts to take the city but were 
repulsed. But w^hcn Morelos' army was starving 
to death, after they had eaten all their mules and 
many of the soldiers the old leather soles of their 
sandals, they broke through the besieging army, 
covering themselves with glory. 

When Leonardo Bravo, one of the bravest sol- 
diers of Morelos, was captured, he offered eight 

hundred Spanish prisoners for 
Negotiations for his life^ but the viceroy re- 
a Prisoner. fused to release him on any 

other condition than his son, 
General Nicholas Bravo, should give up independ- 
ence. This the son refused, and his father was 
shot. Morelos then ordered the son to have the 
eight hundred Spaniards shot in return. That 
night Nicholas could not sleep. The next morn- 
mg he took the eight hundred soldiers and form- 



162 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrm 

ed them in line and told them what the Spaniards 
had done to his father and the order that he had 
to shoot them. *'But I," said he, *4iave deter- 
mined to pardon your life and to give you your 
freedom." No history records an act like this. 

After a few other successful battles, taking the 

city of Oaxaca and also that of Acapules in the 

year 1813, and after having founded the national 

congress in the city of Chilpau- 

Defeat and cingo, he was defeated for the first 

Death. time in his own city and taken pris- 
oner at Fermalaca. He was taken 
to the capital city and first tortured. They took 
sharp knives and shaved of¥ the palms of his 
hands trying to make him retract his ideas of 
independence, but he stood firm. He was shot 
v/ith the greatest cruelty on December 22, 181 5, 
in San Cristobal de Ecatepec. After his body fell 
the waters of Lake Texcoco, without any nat- 
ural cause, came up to the place of execution and 
washed the blood from the ground. So says the 
noted authoritative historian and defender of 
Maximilian, Vicente Riva. Morelos' last words 
were, ''Oh God! If I have done right, thou 
knowest it; if wrong, I am at thy mercy!" 

Nothing of importance occurred during the 
year 1816. There were quite a number of little 
divisions of the revolutionists scattered about 



History — Independence. '^^'^ 

over the country, all under good generals, but no 
one had come to the front to take the 
Mina. places of Hidalgo or Morelos. The 
next general to appear in battle was 
Francisco Tavier Mina. He was a Spanish citi- 
zen who had left Spain by order of the king, 
Ferdinand VU. He first went to London, but 
afterwards came to Mexico, arriving April 15, 
18 1 7. His campaign cannot be described in a 
few words, but the greatest enemy of the revolu- 
tion, Lucas Alamas, said of this great hero, that 
bis career formed a short episode, but the most 
brilliant one of the Mexican Revolution. He de- 
feated the enemy in every encounter, and some- 
times with only one-twentieth of the number of 
soldiers. There were many foreigners in his 
army, especially Americans. But he was cap- 
tured by Orrantia on October 27th while he was 
resting on a ranch. He was shot by Linan, 
Spanish commander in the State of Guannajuato. 
near a fort that was held by the revolutionists, 
Los Remedies. 

The next man that comes to the front is Vi- 
cento Guerrero. He was born in Tixtla in the 
year 1873. He had freighted with mules through 
the country for thirty years. Morelos 
Vicento had given him a commission in the 
Guerrero, army and after his great leader had 
fallen he had kep! on fighting in the 



164 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

cause, gaining victories on every hand with his 
little squad. His father being a high official in 
the Spanish army tried personally and through 
his friends many times to persuade him to give 
up independence, but he stoutly refused, and 
bravely fought till the war was over. When the 
Spaniards saw they could not persuade this in- 
domitable will they sent double forces under 
Iturbide against him. 

Augustin de Iturbide came from Spanish de- 
scent, v/as born in Mexico, and was one of the 
most cruel officers in the Spanish army. He 

cared more for popularity than for 
Augustin principle and wished always to be 

de Iturbide. on the winning side. He had just 

been suspended from the army on 
account of his inhuman cruelty. It was during 
this suspension that he was commissioned by his 
army to go against Guerrero. He started out 
from the city after his game in the year I820, but 
the brave Southerner defeated him in every en- 
counter. Seeing that the insurgents would final- 
ly conquer, he decided to betray his party and 
join hands with the revolutionists. He accord- 
ingly agreed to meet with Guerrero and his army 
at Acatumpam on February 20, 182 1. 

Tl^ey met on the date agreed upon and Itur- 



History— Independence. 1^5 

bide was chosen general commander of the army. 
After a few months' rest and 
Independence training with a few minor en- 
Gained, counters, supported by the trusty 
insurgents he successfully enter- 
ed the city on September 27, 1821, the day of his 
birth. And thus ended the Spanish government. 
Hidalgo's work was finished. After eleven years 
of constant struggle and three hundred years of 
brutal slavery, Mexico was free. 

Soon after the great victory a drunken soldier 
proclaimed Iturbide emperor. It was taken up 
by the populace and in their drunken 
Iturbide enthusiasm and excitement this great 
Emperor, criminal was set on a throne. He as- 
sumed a despotic and contemptuous 
attitude towards the old heroes of the war and 
his popularity suddenly ceased. He became dis- 
couraged and abdicated the throne, the govern- 
ment allowing him to go to Italy with an annual 
pension of twenty-five thousand dollars. Thijik- 
mg that Mexico had forgotten the offence, he re- 
turned in 1823 and according to some previous 
law he was captured and shot July 19, 1824. 

The same year that Iturbide was shot the first 

National Constitution was proclaimed for the 

Republic of Mexico. The work 

First was very imperfect, but it was a 

Constitution, trial and a beginning of better 



166 MexicOj Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

things. The end of the War of Independence 
\vas the beginning of more than fifty years of 
civil and international wars. 

One of the most serious of these wars was the 
one with Texas. For an account of this the 
reader is referred to any history of Texas. The 
land Iving: between Louisiana and 
Texas War. Mexico had been known as one 
of the provinces of Mexico from 
1821 to 1836. This territory comprised an area 
of two hundred and thirty-seven thousand square 
miles. It had been the policy of Mexico, it 
seems, to keep this land uninhabited, so says the 
great historian Ridpath. But at last the inhabit- 
ants cried out for a repubHc of their own. Presi- 
dent Tyler had allowed a land grant to Moses 
Austin and his son on condition that they put 
eight hundred families on the land. In 1835, on 
account of the ^'oppressive policy of Mexico," 
says Ridpath, Texas rebelled. It was a bloody 
war. But only a month after the fall of the Ala- 
mo, on March 6, 1836, in a decisive battle at San 
Jacinto Texas gained her freedom — an independ- 
ence at once recognized by France, England and 
the United States. 

Mexico's war with the United States was the 
saddest of all her troubles. The trouble between 



History — Independence. 167 

them was the boundary of Texas after it had been 
admitted as a state. After Mex- 
War With ico had gained her independence 

United States of Spain she had, in the rearrang- 
ing of her civil administration, 
united Coahuila and Texas — the two states east 
of tie Rio Grande — under one provincial gov- 
ernment. So when Texas gained her freedom, 
naturally Coahuila thought she was included, as 
she had helped to fight. To make their desires 
ard conceptions fully known Texas and Coahuila 
rret in joint session of legislature and put such in 
a statutory form on December 19, I836. Mexico, 
iowever, claimed that only Texas had rebelled 
and not Coahuila. But it seems a play on the 
names of states rather than the real territory in- 
volved. It has been called an unrighteous war. 
One senator said that the United States wanted 
more good land, and that was the handiest and 
easiest to take. The war is always known in 
Mexico as the American Invasion. 

Individual citizens in the United States also 
have had no doubt at times that in this war we 
acted hastily or unwisely, and maybe un-Chri,s- 
tian; but I hardly think that the message 01 the 

President to Congress in 

Unfortunate But Not May, 1846, stating that 

Groundless War. the soldiery of Mexico 

had shed the blood ot 



168 Mexico, Y ester day , Today and Tomorrow 

American citizens on American soil, and that 
their reply on the nth of May with a declara- 
tion that war already existed by the act of the 
Mexican government, was entirely without! rea- 
son. The ground of difference seemed to be this: 
Texas said the Rio Grande was her western bor- 
der, while Mexico said that it was the Nemes. 
Whoever was wrong, a difference existed and 
some one had to find a way out. The Unit^jd 
States proposed to negotiate (as a Christian 
method) but Mexico scornfully refused, whick 
refusal was construed virtually as an acknowl\ 
edgement of their wrong, and that the Rio\ 
Grande was the line. The American soldier was 
the first to die, and died east of the Rio Grande. 
Of course it meant then to march to the City of 
Mexico — a march through blood. But at last 
General Scott with only ten thousand men en- 
tered the city and successfully and placed the 
American flag over every Mexican stronghold, 
August 20, 1847. During these battles many of 
the Mexican soldiers exhibited great courage. 
The boys in the military school at Chepultepec 
left the schoolroom to die wrapped in the flag of 
their country, filling the air with ''Hurrah for 
Mexico!*' And later when the terms of peace 
were being discussed a great Mexican lawyer, 
Jose M. Cuevas, being sick in bed, asked to be 
carried to the senate chamber, where it is said he 



History — Independence. 169 

pleaded for a continuation of the war. A treaty 
of peace was concluded between the nations on 
February 2, 1848. This treaty turned over to 
the United States a great deal of territory, but 
the United States paid fifteen million dollars and 
assumed all Mexico's American debts, besides 
having lost hundreds of her best men. 

Mexico's troubles were not over with the end- 
ing of war with the United States. In 1853 Santa 
Anna, who has been termed by 
Revolution. Mexicans *Hhe greatest scoundrel 
that ever saw light in the glori- 
ous country of Mexico," returned from his 
exile; and the traitor, headed by the priests, 
worked imtil he became the dictator of Mexico. 
His government was characterized by abuses and 
bad management. He taxed the people for the 
number of dogs, cats, and even the windows they 
had in their houses. This brought on the revolu- 
tion of Juan Alvarez and Ignacio Comonfort, 
which ended with the fall of Santa Anna in 1855. 
This war^ which was called the war of ''El Plan 
de Ayutla," put Juan Alvarez on the throne. He 
was one of the most honest and lib- 
Juan eral men that had ever been president 
Alvarez of the country. He was soon succeed- 
ed by his companion in the revolution, 
Ignacio Comonfort, on December 12, 1855. 



170 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

It was now that the discussion of a new con- 
stitution began. The Liberal 

Second party had come to the front and 

Constitution, they needed a constitution of 
that sort. The priests did all in 
their power to prevent its enactment, excommu- 
nicating the congressmen and preaching against 
it with all their power. These "frailes" called the 
Liberal party the party of thieves and not classed 
with respectable people, etc. But in spite of all 
their chicanery the constitution was proclaimed 
on February 5, 1857. The constitution has been 
considered by many to be the best instrument of 
vis kind in the world. It is a monument that will 
stand for all time. Alvarez and Juarez were equal 
to the best jurists of the world. 

Comonfort was too kind and tender-hearted 
to be president. He yielded too easily to the en- 
treaties of his mother and wife who were influ- 
enced by their spiritual advisers. 

War of Through this chain and the con- 

Reformation, fessional box they betrayed the 
constitution and had Juarez, the 
president of the vSupreme Court, and there'fore 
vice-president, locked up. But jails cannot hold 
a spirit and will like that of Juarez. And his ene- 
mies who thought they had gained a victory by 
getting the president to betray his trust and 
making a prisoner of the court were surprised at 



History — Independence. 171 

Juarez* decision, for he assumed the place of 
president immediately. Soon afterwards he es- 
tablished his government, based upon the consti- 
tution, in Vera Cruz. 

The city was again in the hands of the Church 
party but the Liberals were well equipped with a 
constitution like that and a leader like Juarez. 
Juarez was born in Oaxaca in the year 1806, and 

was pure Indian. He moved to the 
Juarez. capital of the state and entered 

school graduating in 1834. He be- 
came governor of his state in 1845, ^^^ was in 
the national congress in 1846. He was the leader 
of the Liberal party and the church hated him. 
He had been in prison and exiled for his ideas. 
But he was the God-sent man to establish that 
liberal constitution and reform laws. And al- 
though England, Spain and France were in the 
way, he was equal to the occasion. Victor Hugo 
said of this great reformer, ''Oh Juarez! Ameri- 
ca has two heroes — Lincoln and thee — Lincoln by 
whom slavery has died, and thee by whom lib- 
erty has lived. Mexico has been saved by a man. 
Thou art the man!" 

Maximilian was persuaded by the Church 
authorities that there was yet place for an em- 
pire in Mexico. But his sad death 
Maximilian, was a lesson to the world that 
Catholic emoires do not thrive 



172 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

where freedom lives. So the French Intervention 
was of short Hfe and full of troubles. 

Juarez and his reform laws were reinstated in 
the capital on January i, 1861. The Liberal party 
had now become more of an anti-clerical party 
than when Juarez succeeded in taking complete 
charge of the country again. Many of the 
trailes left the country. (For further discussion 
of Juarez, see paper on Presidents.) 




CHAPTER X. 

History — Modern. 

EXICO began her republican foim of 
government in the year 1824 under the 
presidency of Guadalupe Victoria, an old 
veteran of the long and hard fought war of inde- 
pendence. Although the numerous forces of the 
Spanish government had almost ex- 
Victoria — tinguished the grand old heroes of 
1824-1828. liberty, Victoria had been spared to 
embark the ship of state upon the per- 
ilous sea of Mexican independence. This brave 
and noble soldier was offered many inducements 
lo betray his party and to become a royalist; but 
Victoria had no price; he belonged to that class 
of early fighters whose motto was "die or con- 
quer." He had been forced to hide out in the 
mountains for two years and six months, eating 
loots and wild berries and without seeing a living 
soul. His hardships and lack of food had given 
him the appearance of a strange skeleton walking 
about in the woods, long and lean and pale. At 
the end of two and a half years Guerrero and 
Iturbide were advancing on the capital city to 
take it. An old Indian friend of this dauntless 



174 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

hero president went out into the mountains in 
search of him, and finding signs of a human be- 
ing he hung a sack of tortillas (thin corn cakes) 
from the branch of a tree. Victoria soon discov- 
ered the food and began at once to devour it. 
His old Indian friend could not recognize him 
as his hair was hanging down over his shoulders 
and his finger nails resembled more the claws of 
a lion. When this brave mountaineer received 
the message that the insurgents had been victo- 
rious and the cit}^ was in their hands he came out 
from his hiding place to fight 'for his great cause. 
Iturbide refused to accept his plans because they 
were those of the ''Liberal Party," which recog- 
nized "special privileges to none and equal rights 
to all," and personally he was not built on that 
plan. However, the country recognized his mer- 
its and made him president October lo, 1824. 
During his term of four years Mexican independ- 
ence was recognized by England and the United 
States. It was during this time that the coloniza- 
tion of Texas was begun bv Mr. Austin who set- 
tled three hundred families there by special grant. 
The most important action of the government 
during Victoria's administration was the putting 
into practice of the anti-slavery laws of Hidalgo. 
Hidalgo was not only the Washington of Mexico, 
but it has been said of him that he was greater 
than Washington in that he not only procured 



History — Modern 175 

the independence of his country but also threw off 
the shackles of slavery. Victoria, truly victorious 
in all his plans, retired at the end of his term 
loved by all his people. 

On September i, 1828, an election v^^as held. 
The Liberal party's candidate, Mr. Guerrero, re- 
ceived nine electoral votes, while the Royalist can- 
didate, Mr. Padraza, 
Vincente Guerrero. received eleven, but 
Apr. I, 1829-Dec. 4, 1829. what has ever been 

true in Latin coun- 
tries, the defeated party did not know how to 
stop fighting and co-operate. So they fought 
over the election and Guerrero whipped, took the 
seat and had his congress declare the election 
null and void. 

Vincente Guerrero is well known to us as a 
leader in the war of independence. He could 
scarcely read or write his name, but a truer heart 
and more magnanimous spirit could not have 
been selected to lead in the destiny of the nation 
just at this time. Only three months after he had 
taken his seat a second Cortez in the person of 
Isidra Barradas went out from Havana to again 
conquer Mexico for Spain. The president com- 
missioned D. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna 
and D. Manuel de Mier y Terran to intercept 
the enemy, which they did, and entirely de- 
stroyed their fleet on September 10, 1829. As a 



176 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

reward for their faithful services both of these 
generals were promoted to generals of divisions 
by the president. 

The president's great mistake was that he put 
too much confidence in the vice-president, Busta- 
mante. Just after the destruction of tlie Beet and 
an army of Baradas there was general talk of an- 
other invasion from Spain, so the president or- 
dered the vice-president to garrison the Atlantic 
coast. It was natural for the president to rely on 
the vice-president, giving him control of the army 
for this defence; but Bustamante, loyal to the 
ideas of all traitors, seized the opportunity and re- 
belled against the government and succeeded in 
gaining the throne. In the meantime there were 
four presidents pro tern: Lie Jose Maria Bo- 
canegra and the three members of the supreme 
court, Pedro Veles, Luis Ouintanar and Lucas 
Alaman, all during the year 1829. 

This revolution of Bustamante was successful 
and placed him at the head of the government. 
His administration was marked by the most cruel 
tyranny, which only fanned the flames of discon- 
tent in every part of the country. The prc^udent 

was able to sup 

Anastasia Bustamante — press all these rev- 
Jan. I, 1830,-Dec. 23, 1832 olutionists, at least 

the leaders, except 
Guerrero, who was well fixed in the south- 



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History — Modern 177 

ern hills and unconquerable, but to cowards 
and mean men there is ahvays some way open. 
So treason was the plan fallen upon to entrap the 
great Guerrero. The president, Bustamante, and 
his cabinet agreed to give to Francisco Ricaluga, 
a very intimate friend of Guerrero, the sum of 
fifty thousand dollars in gold if he would bring 
his friend a captive to them. It was a trade; 
Guerrero was at once invited to breakTast on 
board the ship ^'Columbo," of which Ricalugo 
was captain. He accepted the invitation of his 
friend (?) and was made prisoner by the infamous 
mariner. The noble Guerrero was sentencd to 
death by the president and the execution took 
place at Guilapa February 14, 1831. 

This barbarous act of Bustamante's so enraged 
the people against him that the entire republic 
demanded his retirement. There is a saying in 
Mexico, *'Vamos de Guatamala a Guate Peor" 
(we go from bad to worse). It seemed so in this 
fall of Bustamante. The ever restless Santa Anna 
took up arms against his friend and put Gomez 
Fadraza in the chair. 

Gomez Padraza had been elected to the presi- 
dency in 1828, but was not allowed to take his 
seat because of a successful revolution led by this 

same Santa Anna in favor 
Gomez Padraza. of Guerrero, Padraza was 
Dec. 27, 1832,- honest, intelligent, and was a 

Mar. 2^. T833, strong' character, but his in- 



178 Mexico^ Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

flexibility made him many enemies. He had 
at one time been a distinguished general 
and leader in the Spanish army against 
the republicans. During one of the battles with 
the insurgents he was badly wounded and re- 
mained in bed quite a long time. While confined 
to his bed, he read and thought much and was 
convinced of the justice of the cause of independ- 
ence, and ever after fought for the liberties of the 
Mexican people. He was a most excellent ora- 
tor. It was said that his voice "turned men into 
statues and statues into men." His term lasted 
only three months when an election put Santa 
Anna in power. 

Santa Anna was born in Jalapa, Feb. 21, 1797. 
He was a man without character, and was 
vicious, ignorant and absolutely void of principle, 
but he thought himself great and led others to 
believe it, which caused the ruin of the republic. 
After his election in April in- 
Antonio Lopez stead of taking up his duties he 
de Santa Anna, went off to a large hacienda that 
April I, 1833,- belonged to him at Manga de 
April I, 1837. Clavo to fight cocks. He re- 
turned for a few days in June, 
but left for his cock fights again in July. He re- 
turned again in October, but left in December. 
He did not give any attention to governmental 



History— Modern 179 

affairs until April, 1834. He happened to have 
assoclTted with him during this first term of 
ofhce as vice-president Valente Gomez Farrias, 
who was the incarnation of liberalism, democracy 
and righteousness. He was the man who, while 
being supported by two senators m his feebleness 
administered the oath at the adoption of the con- 
stitution of 1857. Such a character as this by the 
side and at the command of the president could 
wonderfully help to stir ar^'g^ht the shi>p of state. 

It was during this first term of Santa Anna that 
Texas, then a province of Mexico, rebelled. He 
led the army but was captured by the Americans 
at San Jacinto. (For details the reader is referred 
to any Texas history.) After his release he pass- 
ed the time at his hacienda, ignored and hated by 
his people, until the French came over anJ woke 
him up in 1838. He made a foolish attack upon 
the invaders at Vera Cruz and lost one of His legs, 
but replaced himself in the hearts of his country- 
men. They brought his leg to the city and many 
eulogies were pronounced over it by the ready 
orators for heroes. A little later on an indignant 
mob exhumed his leg and kicked it thorough the 
streets of the city. 

Of other presidents ceming in for short terms 
Ihere is scarcely need of mention until we come 
to Comonfort in 1855, but their names and terms 
of office are briefly given: 



180 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

Aastasia Bustamante was elected the second 
time to the presidency and took 
Bustamante — his seat on April 12, 1837, and 
Second Term. lost his place at the hands of 
Santa Anna on October 10, 1841. 
Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna took his seat for 
the second term on October 10, 
Santa Anna— 1841, and went out on October 
Second Term. 6, 1842. He was nominated dic- 
tator on January 6, 1843, but 
gave up the power on December 5, 1844. 

Jose Joaquin de Herrera took the 
Jose Joaquin presidency on December 5, 1844, 
de Herrera. and went out on January 2, 1845. 
Mariano Paredes Arrilliga, gained by 
Arrilliga. the sword the presidency on January 
2, 1846, and so ended his term Aug- 
ust 4, 1846. 

Santa Anna again entered by way of the sword 
for the third term on December 
Santa Anna— 24, 1846, and weHt out on Sep- 
Third Term. tember 14, 1847, by the same 
method. This was during the 
war with the United States. When in 1847 the 
Americans entered the capital, Santa Anna fled 
before them. The treaty of peace called ''Guad- 
alupe de Hidalgo" was signed February 2, 1848. 
When Santa Anna fled from Mexico to keep 



History— Modern 181 

from getting into the hands of the Americans 
again, Manuel de la Pena y Pena 
Pena y Pena. took the presidency on Septem- 
ber 14, 1847, and lost his place on 
May 13, 1848. He was an old magistrate accus- 
tomed only to look after the social welfare in the 
practice of law. He was a magistrate of the su- 
preme court and remained in the place while the 
congress elected another president. 

Jose Joaquin de Herrera took charge of the 
government June 3, 1848, and 
Jose Joaquin served his people faithfully until 
de Plerrera — 1851. Herrera did all in his 
Second Term. power to lift Mexico to higher 
ideals. A dark cloud had been 
hanging over the land for a number of 
years. The traitors led by the Catholic 
priests had kept the country in constant commo- 
tion, the war cry was unhushed, there were too 
many soldiers and priests. Herrera reduced the 
army to a small number and began to properly 
organize the other departments of the govern- 
ment under wise legislation looking to the pro- 
gress and development of the country. 
Herrera was succeeded by Mariano Arista, 
who took his seat January 15, 1851, and closed his 
term January 4, 1853. Arista followed 
Arista, up the progress made by his predeces- 
sors courageously; he was a true pa- 



182 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow, 

triot: he was the commander-in-chi<^f of the army 
that had attacked Taylor in Rio Bravo. He made 
^ome fatal mistakes in war, but none could deny 
his courage and patriotism. 

Manuel Maria Lombardini by a military con- 
test and decision was put in power 
Lombardini. for a few days, beginning his ca- 
reer on February 7, 1853, ^^^ €"<i- 
ing April 20. While in office he arranged some 
important matters with the United States touch- 
ing the Gara concession relative to the isthmus 
of Tehauntepec. 

Santa Anna came again by force to power. He 
took charge as dictator on April 
Santa Anna— 20, 1853, and closed his term 
Fourth Term. August 9. 1855. As would be ex- 
pected, rather than carry on the 
development of the other functions of the gov- 
ernment, he began at once to increase and organ- 
ize the military department; but he was finally 
whipped at his own game. 

Martin Correra was now put at the head of the 
government for a few days. He took 
Correra. his seat on August 14, 1855, and lost 
it on September 11, 1855. 
Juan Alvarez, an old insurgent, now took up 
the reins of government. He began his term Oc- 
tober 4, 1855, and resigned December 
Alvarez. 8, 1855. ^^ became discouraged, see- 



History — Modem 183 

ing that another uprising was inevitable. He 
was patriotic and brave and loved by his coun- 
trymen. When he sent in his resignation, the 
country insisted on his keeping his place, arguing 
that he had been so poorly recompensed for his 
splendid services that the country wanted to 
honor him with its highest gift. He replied: "He 
who fulfills his duty does not need prizes nor 
praises," and resigned in favor of Comonfort. 

Ignacio Comonfort took his seat on December 
II, 1855, and finished his course December 17, 
1857. Comonfort came into power at an oppor- 
tune time and providentially had 
Comonfort. thrown around him as his co-labor- 
ers and associates a few glorious 
characters whose illustrious memory will always 
bring a message of inspiration to the Mexican 
people — Juarez, Ocampo, and Priteto. Ocampo, 
however, did not agree with the president and re- 
tired to his private home and business. Comon- 
fort, Juarez and the other ministers began at 
once to enact rigid laws against the oppressors 
and in favor of the people. This brought on a 
reaction in a hurry, headed by the church at the 
city of Puebla. The bishop there preached a 
strong sermon against the government and en- 
couraged an uprising. Comonfort put an end to 
the rebellion, punishng the leaders severely and 
banishing the bishop from the country. 



184 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

In 1857 the constitution was recognized and 
Comonfort became constitutional president. As 
the provisions of the constitution did away with 
all special privileges to the clergy and the wealthy, 
a tremendous effort was made to overthrow it, 
but Comonfort faced the situation bravely and 
many of the arrogant lords felt for the first time 
The heavy hand of a strong government. Jusc at 
this point the Bishop of Mexico City began work- 
ing with the president's mother. This woman, 
enslaved by the influence of the church, conduct- 
ed herself in a way that grieved the heart of Com- 
onfort, for although he was a tiger on the battle- 
field he was an angel in his home. T is strong, 
brave man who knew his duty, could not resist 
longer the pleadings of his feeble mother, and in 
that critical hour did a thing that he soon lament- 
ed, but too late. He set aside the constitution. 
The principles of that constitution were too well 
embedded in the hearts and lives of some of the 
country's safest and best men to be set aside in 
a moment by sentiment, or the brush of a priestly 
robe. Comonfort's own party discarded him and 
the opposite party had no confidence in him. He 
retired to private life, but years afterwards was 
allowed to come and fight as a common soldier. 
An eye witness, touched by his indomitable valor 
in the hour of battle, called him the "soldieriess 
general." He died May 7, 1862, in an effort to 



History — Modern 185 

carry food to the besieged army of Pue^la during 
the French war. 

All during Comonfort's administration Juarez 
had been president of the supreme court, and 
thereby legal vice-president, so on Comonfort's 
failure Juarez took up and enforced the constitu- 
tion of 1857. 

D. Bendito Juarez was the 
Bendito Juarez — first constitutional president 
Jan. 18, 1858,- of the entire republic. He 

July 18, 1872. took his seat January 18, 

1858, and held the place un- 
til his death, July 18, 1872. 

The presidents up to Juarez were rather uncer- 
tain quantities, and I have only given eighteen, 
which seems to cover the real facts in the case, 
as their periods make a connected history. If I 
had taken into account each moment when some 
general was in the lead, and really dictator for 
the time being, that is, for a day or two interven- 
ing between the ending of one of the terms and 
the beginning of another, T would have counted 
forty-eight instead of eighteen, which would have 
made Juarez the forty-ninth rather than the nine- 
teenth. But beginning with Juarez, the first real 
president of the republic, we will treat him more 
iully. 

Bendito Juarez was born in an humble little 



186 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrozv 

jacal in the little village of Guilatar in the State 
of Oaxaca in 1806. His parents, Adarielino Juarez 
and Brysda Garcia de Juarez were both full- 
blooded Indians belonging to the tribe of Zapo- 
tecas. His father and mother both died while he 
was young and he was left to the care of his uncle, 
Paublo Juarez, His early youth was spent herd- 
ing cattle, until twelve years of age, when an un- 
expected incident gave an entire turn to his life. 
Often while herding cattle he would drive them 
about a big rock and get upon it and make them 
an eloquent speech. One day while fishing in a 
lake he was standing on some branches of a fallen 
tree that he was using for a boat. Suddenly a 
gust of wind carried the tree far out from shore. 
Little Bendito did not cry as other boys would 
have done, but stood the test without a tear. 
Night came on. Through the dark, dreary hours 
he held on to the branches until the li'ght of a new 
day flashed over the glossy surface of the lake 
and he saw that he was again on shore. He jump- 
ed on land and went whistling away as if nothing 
had happened. But something had happened. 
That majestic look and sublime smile of his in 
times of greatest danger in after life were born 
out of that dark and perilous night. 

Again, one day while Bendito was guarding 
cattle he left them for a while and was having a 
general good time with some other boys who 



History — Modern 187 

were also herding cattle. Some of the cows got 
into the corn field of a farmer who, very much ex- 
cited and angry, appeared on the scene and after 
blessing out the boys in general told Bendito 
that he was going to tell his uncle Puablo on him. 
Bendito knew his uncle weli, and rather than take 
the barbarous beating that he knew awaited him, 
he ran away to Oaxaca where one of his sisters 
lived. On his way he joined in with a large cara- 
van headed that way. Many of the crowd tried 
to scare the little Indian by telling him that his 
uncle was after him, and other tales of woe, but 
ragged, barefooted, and unknown, he walked 
through the streets of Oaxaca up to the humble 
home of his sister. Little did Oaxaca know that 
her greatest hero slept within her gates that night 
— little did she dream that out of her barefooted 
Indian boy would come a hero whosje statue 
would adorn every city's public park and streets 
in the republic and art galleries of the world! 
He soon fell into the hands of an old fraile, Anto- 
nia Salamanca, who began to teach him what she 
knew. The eager mind of the little Indian soon 
exhausted all of his teacher's knowledge, and 
Salamanca sent him to school. Following the 
custom of the times, Juarez was dedicated to the 
study of theology, a subject in which he became 
a distinguished scholar; but as to his becoming a 



ISS Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

priest he was far from it. His convictions and 
principles rebelled at such an idea. 

Soon after this the Oaxaca Institute was found- 
ed and Juarez determined at once to enter it. His 
tutor refused to allow him the privilege, but 
when Juarez insisted, his old friend, his tutor, 
threatened to withdraw all protection, help, and 
even friendship. Juarez accepted and became a 
member of the Institute. He was now at home 
among teachers and books He gave his time to 
law and soon graduated from the law department. 
During all his school days, when a topic of a po- 
litical nature was under discussion he always took 
great interest in advancing mature thoughts upon 
the question of liberal doctrines and the progress 
of the country. Step by step he climbed. He 
became agent of his alma mater, held a 'place in 
the government as deputy, and later was elected 
governor of the State of Oaxaca in 1847, when the 
American army entered Mexico City and drove 
Santa Anna out. 

Santa Anna sought refuge in his state but 
Juarez was so disgusted with him that he would 
not allow him to stop in his territory. Later on, 
however, in 1853, when Santa Anna was made 
dictator, he got even with him by sending him out 
of the country. Juarez's exilement was spent in 
New Orleans, in much misery, where he had to 
make pottery for a living. He did not remain 



History— Modern 189 

very long, however, as some friends sent him 
money to return to Mexico. He landed at Aca- 
pulco as an *'incognito." A young officer, son 
of General Alvarez, employed him as secretary. 
He did not disclose his identity. He had not been 
in this employment very long, however, until D. 
Juan Alvarez, the chief of the revolution, accident- 
ally recognized him, and from that moment 
Juarez was the soul of the movement. Afterwards 
when Santa Anna was overthrown he became a 
minister of the Alvarez government. Later on 
he was made president of the supreme court 
during Ignacio Comonfort's administration. 
While in charge of this most responsible place he 
exercised great judgment and extraordinary tact 
and skill. Juarez was made prisoner when the 
president, Comonfort, betrayed the constitution. 
Juarez was by virtue of the office he held as pres- 
ident of the supreme court, the vice-president of 
the republic, and thus became president when 
Conmonfort acted as he did. A president, yet in 
chains. Yet this indomitable republican, lover of 
free institutions, broke the chains that bound him 
end Hfting the flag that he had loved to the breez- 
es started for Guanajuata, and from there to San 
Luis Potosi. Being surrounded and supported by 
the strongest men of the republic, he was thus 
able to establish the strongest liberal government 
that Mexico had yet seen. 



190 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

From San Luis Potosi he went to Guadalajara 
where he estabHshed his government in the pal- 
ace there. It was Juarez that began the righteous 
war of the reformation of 1858, the sole purpose 
of which was to destroy forever the power of the 
church. The leaders of the church party among 
the clergy saw that their time was up, so they or- 
ganized and put into requisition all their vast re- 
sources to overthrow and kill Juarez. Failing at 
every point the priests finally bribed the chief of 
the garrison that guarded the palace, paying him 
a large sum of money to kill Juarez and the en- 
tire cabinet. What a contemplated slaughter ! 
What a glory for the representatives of the ''Man 
of Galilee!" The captain, faithful to his promise, 
went at the head of his army and besieged the 
palace where were assembled Juarez and his cab- 
inet. Juarez with his hands behind him was walk- 
mg to and fro planning for the future, little think- 
ing that his body guards had turned traitors, 
M'hen suddenly a mad voice called him. With his 
i.sual indifference he walked towards the soldiers 
v/ith their pointed guns, exposing his breast but 
turning his face as if to protect it from the bul- 
lets. Just as the last command, fire! was given, 
Juarez addressed them with a voice of thunder, 
; nd as this great Cicero talked to them their guns 
began to lower and no sooner had they placed 



History— Modem 191 

them by their sides than tears began flowing down 
their cheeks. 

From Guadalajara, Juarez went to Calime, 
sailing from Panama to V^era Cruz. In Vera 
Cruz in 1859 he was besieged by Miguel Mira- 
mon, leader of the conservatives, or frailes, the 
church party. But while besieged, under the 
roaring of the enemy's artillery, without signs of 
fear, he went on with the business of the govern- 
ment. One of the most splendid monuments to 
hiis memory is that code of laws of the reforma- 
tion that he turned out during this besieging fire 
from the 12th to the 23rd of July, 1859. 

Vera Cruz was attacked again in i860 by Mira- 
mon, this time both by land and sea, but the at- 
tack failed. His ships and crews were declared 
pirates by Juarez and captured. Miramon then 
turned back to Mexico City, and after a series of 
defeats the Conservatives were conquered and the 
republican government established. 

Juarez entered Mexico City in 1861, only to 
leave it May 31, 1863, after Forey, the French 
general took the city of Puebla 

The cause of the French Intervention was hid- 
den in the church. Napoleon III., influenced by 
the lady Eugenia, a strong Catholic, had received 
into his court quite a number of the Conserva- 
tives. These traitors headed by the Bislicp La- 



192 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

bastida, through the lady Eugenia, advised Na- 
poleon to reconquer Mexico. Napoleon did not 
wish the job himself, and so he sought outside 
help. In the meantime Mexico had suspended 
the payment of her national debt on account of 
ihe lamentable condition of her national treas- 
ury. England and Spain protested and France, 
seeing her chance, joined them. The nations met 
in conference at la Saledad and acknowledged the 
injustice of intervention and signed a treaty to 
sail away. England and Spain did so, but France 
remained. Juarez called them to order and re- 
minded them of the treaty they had signed, 
\\ hereupon the French representative replied 
that '* their word was worth no more than the 
paper upon which it was written." No more 
words were necesary The war began in earnest. 
Juarez was determined to teach Europe a lesson. 
The French were defeated May 5, 1862, in 
Puebla. As soon as the Conservatives gained 
some victories, they lost no time in looking 
for an emperor. They found him in Maximil- 
ian, who accepted for three reasons: first, protec- 
tion offered by Napoleon, the Pope and other 
friends; second to get out of debt; third, his am- 
bition to be emperor. He arrived in Mexico June 
12, 1864. Juarez traveled to the north, stoppirig 
at Saltilla, Monterey, Chihuahua and El Paso del 



History — Modem 193 

Norte (now C. Juarez). Everywhere he went he 
received a great ovation because the people knew 
that he was the very heart of Mexico in that he 
had at heart the highest interests of his fellow 
countrymen. He passed his birthday March 21, 
1865, in Chihuahua, where the people gathered in 
the palace to do honor to the great Republican. 
During the many speeches one orator took as hi!s 
theme, "The Absent Family." To this Juarez 
could respond only under a flood of tears and the 
difficulties of a deep emotion that choked him. 
He said, "The sacrifice of my family would be 
tremendous, but let it be if it is for the country !'* 
His wife was in the United States, and she had 
been very kindly and courteously received by the 
president. 

Chihuahua was taken by Brincourt in August, 
1865, and Juarez went as far as the river in El 
Paso. He did not set his feet on foreign soil, for 
that would have been cowardice, and Juarez knew 
no fear. From there he directed the army and 
one victory followed another until he was soon 
ready to turn his face toward the very center of 
his country and at once began his march to 
Zacatecas. He was defeated there by Miramon 
and w^ent to San Luis Potosi. Maximilian was 
abandoned in a most critical moment. The whip 
of the Mexican army and the demand of the 
United States, forced Spain to withdraw her 



194 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

army, leaving Maximilian to his own resources. 
The emperor made himself strong in Queretaro, 
where he was besieged and taken prisoner by 
General Escobedo. No greater effort was ever 
made in vain to save a man than in the case of 
Maximilian. The world pitied him as he was a 
tool in the hands of circumstances, but Juarez was 
immovable. His answer to the lawyers' plea was, 
*'The law and the sentence are inexorable in this 
moment, for public health so demands it." So 
Maximilian, together with Miramon and Mija, 
his most distinguished generals, were executed 
June 19, 1867. 

On July 15 following, Juarez again entered the 
City of Mexico where he was received with the 
most enthusiastic demonstrations. He recom- 
mended to all Mexicans the principle, ''Respect 
to the rights of others is peace." 

He was at once elected again to the presidency 
and as a result many of his best genrals, among 
them Porfirio Diaz, rebelled against him. Juarez 
was successful and defeated the rebels in a series 
of encounters. 

Juarez died suddenly at his post in the palace 
July 18, 1872. In his death Mexico lost her great- 
est son and the world a great hero and emanci- 
pator. 

Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada was born in Jalapa, 



History — Modern 195 

Mexico, April 25, 1825. He was judge of the su- 
preme court in 1857; a member of congress in 

1861 - 1862; min- 
Sebastian Lerdo de Tejada — ister of foreign 
Jan. I, 1873,-May 5, 1877. affairs in 1862- 

1867; and was ap- 
pointed chief justice of the supreme court the 
same year, by virtue of which office he became 
president on the death of Juarez. 

At the close of his first term, or the expiration 
of the unfinished term of Juarez in 1876, Lerdo 
was a candidate to succeed himself. The election 
was in doubt but congress declared Uerdo elect- 
ed. This decision, however, was not satisfactory 
to the people and as usual a revolution occurred 
which forced Lerdo to leave the country. He 
went to the city of New York where he lived in 
retirement the rest of his life. 

Manuel Gonzales was born in Matamoros in 
the year 1833, and died in Mexico City May 8, 
1893. He was a distinguished general and had 

supported Diaz in all 

Manuel Gonzales — his revolutions. He 

Dec. I, 1880,-Nov. 30, 1884. was one of the lead- 
ers in the revolution 
that overthrew Lerdo and placed General Diaz in 
power in 1877. Chronologically this places Diaz 
before Gonzales as president; but as Diaz had no 



196 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrozu 

other interruption in his long career Gonzales is 
placed here. 

Gonzales was secretary of war during Diazes 
first administration and became president at the 
close of his first term, for Diaz had ruled, as mTl- 
itary captain and boss, during the term of Lerdo, 
that no one could succeed himself as president. 
Gonzales, being succeeded by Diaz, was elected 
governor of the State of Guanajuato in 1884. 

Diaz was born in Oaxaca September 15, 1830. 
He is not an Indian as some have thought, but is 
three-fourths Spanish. His ear- 
Porfirio Diaz — ly training was under Juarez in 
May 5, 1877,- the Oaxaca Institute. After 
May 25, 191 1. finishing his academic course 
he expected to take up the 
study of law, but owing to the American invasion 
hiis plans were changed and he enlisted in the 
National Guards. It was from th's date that his 
briUiant career began. From that moment he 
dedicated himsdf to the cause of the freedom of 
his country. 

When the dictatorship of Santa Anna began in 
1854. Diaz supported the rebelHon against such a 
tyrannical ruler. Later on when Maximilian (the 
unfortunate accident of Napoleon III.) under- 
took to set up an empire in Mexico, Diaz was one 
of the first and most daring generals to enter ef- 



History— Modern 197 

fective protest with the sword. His countiymen 
had long since recognized his steding worth in 
the love of his country's freedom, and had in 1861 
placed him at the head of the entire southern 
army. His country never had cause to regret its 
action in making him leader for he distinguished 
himself in every battle, never allowing the flag to 
trail in the dust. His tact and bravery and suc- 
cess in that memorable battle with the French, 
May 5, 1862, won for him forever all the distinc- 
tions that a proud nation could bestow upon a 
worthy son. 

He was taken prisoner in the year 1863 in the 
city of Puebla after a most heroic resistance. 
The proud French general endeavored by all 
kinds of threats to make him swear never to 
lake up arms again against his enemies, but 
rather than take such an oath, in response to the 
entreaties of his captors, he took a book and, 
that it might not fade at once from thought or 
sight, put in black and white^ ''I swear to defend 
the cause of the liberty of my country with all my 
energy, conceding to the Frenchmen a right to 
watch me." 

After gaining his freedom he entered at once 
on a tireless and fearless march and fight against 
his enemies. Soon afterwards he fell into the 
hands of the French again, and the French gen- 
eral accused him of cowardice and dishonor, when 



198 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

the proud Diaz called for the records of his pre- 
vious captivity, and turning to the sentence that 
he had written, asked the French general to read 
it. As the Frenchman glanced over it his eyes 
fell and a blush of shame came over his face. He 
was soon released and began a more active cru- 
sade against the French than ever. His greatest 
victory w^as the siege of Puebla. This great bat- 
tle revealed not only the daring spirit of Diaz but 
also his unrivaled skill in the art of war. He be- 
gan his journey to the city on April 2, 1867. He 
took the city without much resistance. On com- 
ing into possession of the city his finer qualities 
of soul were brought out when he refused to take 
the large sums of money that had thus been 
placed in his hands. He not only turned into the 
treasury of the government all this money but de- 
clined any manifestation in his favor as Juarez 
tntered the city, declaring that he as president, 
should have the glory. 

Soon after the war, however, political parties 
began to organize and enter upon an active cam- 
paign. Iglesias, Lerdo de Tejada and Porfirio 
Diaz were all strong candidates for the presi- 
dency. Juarez defeated them but died soon after 
his election. On the death of Juarez, by virtue of 
his office as president of the supreme court, Lerdo 
came to the presidency and finished out the term. 
At the close of the term Lerdo's efforts to succeed 



History — Modern 199 

himself failed. Diaz rose against him with his 
'Tlan of Tuxtepect," that of "no re-elections." 
Lerdo fled from the capital and Diaz became pres- 
ident in 1876 and served out his term in 1880, 
tor according to his own plan no one could be re- 
elected. From 1880 to 1884 General Tvianuel Gon- 
zales Ortega was in power. During these four 
years the Diaz party was rapidly growing and at 
the expiration of Gonzales' term Diaz was elected. 
One of the first things he did was to repeal the 
plan that a president should not be re-elected, 
and so he retained the presidency until May 25, 

1911. 

To m-any, especially from an American point of 
view, this action of Diaz seems inconsistent; but 
a careful study of the situation reveals many 
Mexican problems. When Mexico first selected 
and named four years as a term for her presidents 
she no doubt was copying from the United States 
government, but her leaders like General Diaz 
soon realized that they had not before them the 
easy problems that the United States had dealt 
with, but something infinitely more intricate. It 
was indeed quite a different proposition. For 
when the first pilgrims came to the United States 
the country was inhabited by the savage. The 
owners of the country were either extinguished 
or set off to themselves and a government was 
formed, not with these savage illiterates, but out 



200 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

of the cream of the Anglo-Saxon race — out of 
the best blood and brain that the civdized races 
had produced. 

But of the fifteen million inhabitants of Mexico 
ten million were of these ilHterate savage In- 
dians, learing: only five million to bear all respon- 
sibility of government and development. Mr. 
Diaz realized this and saw that his first plan 
'would mean endless bloody wars and sure ruin. 
And so he became a kind of a king around whose 
throne peace for a period settled — a peace no 
doubt that was bought at times at too great a 
cost. He ruled with an iron hand. Many times 
he was cruel, but whether always in his actions 
or not he was always equal to every emergency. 
Possibly the greatest tribute to his success is the 
amazing prosperity of the republic. 

Diaz is certainly next to Juarez the greatest 
man the country has produced and one of the 
greatest statesmen the world has known. 

George Washington proclaimed freedom, but 
was supported by a ''freedom loving people." 
When Hidalgo proclaimed liberty his ignorant 
Indians knew not what the word meant. They 
followed their great leader instinctively. They 
rallied around his magnetic personality. And so 
to develop this ignorant, superstitious, enslaved 
race was no easy task. Sttp by step Diaz intro- 
duced reforms along all lines until today the op- 



History — Modern 201 

erations of the government, the progress of the 
country industrially, educationally; in civil, social, 
and religious righteousness is nothing snort of tiie 
miraculous. While the author does not believe 
that the high ideals and purposes of the Juarez 
administration were fully followed up by General 
Diaz, he must accredit to him a most successful 
?nd really wonderful career. 

The fatal mistake that Diaz made was in not 
carrying out what he led the people to believe 
he was going to do, namely: retire at the close 

of his term in 1910. He 
Diaz's Mistake and had promised in a way to 
The Revolution. retire the term preceding 

that; that is, he had made 
known to the people that it was his desire to put 
some one in his place by popular vote betore he 
became too old to assist the new president in 
getting a hold on the reigns of government. 
And the people thought that time had come. So 
when the election came on in 1910, rather than 
retire from the race he chose to place in jail the 
one who would oppose him in the race for presi- 
dent, and thus enraged the already dissatisfied 
public. If Diaz had invited opposition, and when 
another was elected according to constitutional 
methods, he then had lent every assistance in 
building up every interest of the commonwealth, 
the world would have looked upon him even more 



202 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

as a great constructive statesman, and his de- 
clining years would have been much happier. 

Diaz made the mistake, in fact, a term preced- 
ing this, when General Bernardo Reyes, then 
commander in general of the federal army, 
aspired to the office of vice-president, by shifting 
him from that position to one where he would be 
less dangerous, as governor of Nuevo Leon. And 
when this did not cool off his political ambitions 
he was sent away to make military observations 
m Europe. The people had long become impa- 
tient with actions of this kind, and so when Ma- 
dero issued his proclamation they were easily ex- 
cited to rebellion. And so under promise of free 
ballots and a better time they rose up in rebellion 
according to Madero's call on the 20th of Novem- 
ber, 1910, and in a few short months were able to 
dictate their own terms of peace. Diaz was forced 
to steal away from the capital under the shades of 
darkness in an inglorious defeat on May 25, 
1911. 

De la Barra was ambassador to the United 
States from Mexico when the revolution led by 
Francisco I. Madero broke out. De la Barra was 
a friend of Madero, and also a 
De la Barra — close friend of Diaz. He was 
May 25, 191 1,- instrumental in influencing 
Nov. 6, 191 1. President Diaz to resign for the 
good of the country. The lead- 



History — Modern 203 

ers of the rebellion were willing that De la Barra 
should act as president until one could be prop- 
erly elected by the people. 

Francisco I. Madero was born near Monterey 
in 1865. He is of a rich family, enthusiastic, well 
educated, and that he possesses undaunted cour- 
age no one doubts; for to 
Francisco I. Madero. raise a hand against the 

Nov. 6, 1911,-? — long established iron-hand 

rule of Diaz meant death 
or victory. And no one knew this better than 
Madero. But he had convictions and dared to 
stand or die by them. He was right, and right 
will prevail. 

The plan of the Madero administration is to 
carry out the policies and principles upon which 
the revolution was won, but 
New Regime this will be a task not easy to 

Not Inaugurated accomplish. The people are 
In a Day. simply not entirely prepared 

for it. In fact, Diaz might 
have done it better than he did if he had been 
able. The plan is splendid, but no doubt there 
will be breakers ahead. Of course with General 
Reyes eliminated, a counter revolution under 
Zapata or Orosco will be much more difficult, 
especially after such a dramatic surrender of the 
once idol of the people in the hour of his com- 
plete vanquishment sobbing "I have called upon 



204 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

the army, and I have called upon the people, and 
no one has responded." The most unnatural 
settlement of the affairs of a Latin- American peo- 
ple is the ease with which it has been accomplish- 
ed. Where many thirst for trouble and fighting 
is popular and will afford a livelihood for so many 
unemployed; and where rivalry, ambition, and a 
spirit of non-conformity exists, President Madero 
will indeed prove himself a diplomat if he closes 
his term in peace. And even though he does 
bring about peace, sometimes a compromising, 
pacifying policy that is required to do it amounts 
to a kind of patch-work job that is not permanent. 

After all there is no reason why this people 
should always do in the future as they have done 
in the past; no reason why they should not have 
a new vision; that each new year should not be 
to them indeed and in fact a new way. They are 
not like they used to be, but are more highly edu- 
cated both in heart and in mind today than ever 
before. They know and appreciate the virtue of 
peace and the horror of war as never before. 
And let us hope that the explanation of the rare 
ease with which the old regime has been replaced 
by the new is simply the dawn of a new day with 
them — a day when no longer constant rebellions 
will be popular. 

The platform of the new administration if car- 



History — Modern 205 

ried out is fully sufficient to establish a strong 

and permanent govern- 
New Policy Adequate ment of peace and 
To Stable Government, prosperity. The guar- 
antee of popular suff- 
rage and better education and industrial facilities 
for the mediocre touches a responsive chord in 
the hearts of millions. It is not altogether new, 
but a re-emphasis of the principles and ideas of 
Juarez from which the government has long been 
drifting. That the new life, the consecrated intel- 
lect of Mexico today will be equal to all emer- 
gencies no nation need fear. 

There will be dissatisfaction and unrest for a 
time; political ambitions and personal grievances 
of some will cause bloodshed, as in the case of 
Zapata and Orosco, but peace will finally hover 
over this great country. 

The vast holdings of citizens of the United 
States are being rapidly extended throughout all 
the Latin-American countries. Being large stock- 
holders it will be easy for us 

Obligation of to be accused of being impli- 
Strong to V/eak. cated in some way witTi the 

political changes of these 
countries, and it will be unnatural not to be. It 
is generally thought that the banana trust was 
identified in some way with the troubles of Nica- 
ragua; and so the asphalt trust was thought by 



206 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

some to have financed the Venezuela revolution. 
The vast tobacco and sugar interests of Cuba can 
incite to insurrection when a rebel could not ex- 
plain his grievances if it brings around the navy 
and intervention. Our mining interests and other 
trading in Mexico needs protection, and interven- 
tion and annexation talk suits great promoters. 
Protection and peace are necessary for the good 
of all, but it is better by far to help a government 
to help itself than to aid in any way in a revolu- 
tion. If ample protection can be worked out on 
that plan it will undoubtedly be the wisest way. 
There is a Moral obligation upon the stronger to 
the weak that cannot easily be shifted. 




CHAPTER XL 

Mexico's Tomorrow 

HE two most familiar expressions that a 
traveler meets with in Mexico are 

''Manana" and "Quien Sabe." Manana 

means tomorrow, but is used also to indicate an 
indefinite future day. Quien 
^'Manana and Sabe is, literally, ''who knows?" 
"Quien Sabe." meaning "I don't know," or 
"God only knows." These ex- 
pressions one hears on every corner, at every 
pause throughout every hour of every day. 

If you want anything attended to, Mexico does 
not seem to know how to attend to it at once, but 
tells you to call another day. Although your bus- 
iness may be to rent or buy proper- 
Their Use. ty, or of such a business character 
as that your visit is eminently im- 
portant to the man you wish to see, and although 
he knows it, is present and unoccupied, he will 
Hkely tell you to call at three o'clofck in the 'after- 
noon or at nine o'clock the next morning. If you 
go to the bank to purchase a New York draft, 
you pay for it and the cashier tells you to call 
around the next morning or at twelve o'clock for 



208 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

it. In the meantime you have no showint( what- 
ever for your money. 

The average working man can give you scarce- 
ly any information at all. You may ask one who 
has lived all his life in the city what the popula- 
tion of the place is and he will answer **Quien 
sabe." And then ask if there are ten or fifty 
thousand and he will answer "Quien sabe." He 
does not seem to have any conception at all as to 
whether there are one or five hundred thousand. 
Several men who had lived from ten to tv/enty 
years in a certain city were asked what direction 
the river ran, or which end was the source of the 
river that passed through the city, and it seemed 
they had never thought to notice it. 

They dont know and have no anxiety nor curi- 
osity about anything whatever. We were out on 
a two hundred-mile trip with a 
Lack of Interest physician bringing a danger- 
and Curiosity. ously wounded American 
along the Mazatlan trail over 
the Sierra Madre mountains on a stretcher to the 
city of Durango. On that trip we met some fifty 
squads of peons (poor ones or common people). 
Of the hundreds that we met not one looked at 
the stretcher nor asked a questtion. We were 
passing the door of a jacal (wigwam, hut, pro- 
nounced *'ackal") when a wild duck that had been 
shot by some one at a lake half a mile away fell 



Mexico's Tomorrow 209 

dead in the lap of a woman sitting near the door. 
She simply picked it up and laid it on a table 
without so much as looking out at the door or up 
into the air from whence it had come. She acted 
as though dead ducks had fallen in her lap at that 
hour every day she had lived there. 

If it had been a Southern negress she would 
have run out of the house and looking up ex- 
claimed, "Good Lawd! Is it gwine to rain dead 

ducks? 'Fo God if it ain't done went 
Negro vs. an' done it!" But with the Mexican, 
Mexican. if she thought at all, or had thought 

loud enough for words, "Quien sabe" 
would have settled it forever. 

These poor people have been taught for more 
than three hundred years not to think nor ask 
questions — that the greatest sin they could com- 
mit would be to question 
Rome Responsible anything. They are 

For Lack of Interest, taught to do only as the 

priests think. The\ have 
been so faithful to this teaching that they have 
a^ophied almost into mental sterility with abso- 
lutely no care or concern, anxiety or curiosity 
about anything. Thus this old habit and meaning 
of manana, darkening the intellectual and moral 
skies of the people, has been spread like a dark 
mantle over them by a ruthless, slavish, iron- 
clad priesthood hand. 



210 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

In more recent times the inevitable contact of 
the people with the new thought and high ideas 
of a righteous and intelligent evangelism of the 

Unifed States Has turned 
Mexico's Glorious through this lifeless and un- 
Tomorrow. concerned manana an elec- 

tric current that has brought 
cut a thousand brilliant stars of hope. Aspiration 
and hope are taking hold of the people and they 
read a new story in manana. Mexico's manana is 
destined to be one of the brightest and most glo- 
rious epochs in the history of any land. The won- 
derful strides of progress that she is making now 
along all lines is phenomenal. The people are 
awaking from their long sleep to the highest in- 
terests of civic, industrial, educational, moral and 
religious advancement. The common laborers 
liere and there who have heretofore been accus- 
tomed to walk around with downcast eyes, void 
of ambition and hope, feeling a subconsciousness 
of almost eternal oppression, have received a new 
impulse, and, hfting their eyes to the skies, they 
have walked out into God's free open air to think, 
to plan, to organize, to resist oppression, to make 
demands — realizing for the first time that they 
have any rights at all. 

Of course, when this new day first dawns upon 
a people they are dangerous to the best interests 



Mexico's Tomorrow 211 

of all unless they be morally trained. Brotherly 
love, mutual aid, recognition of 
The Church's the rights of others must also be 
Opportunity. the ruling passion. Herein lies 
the church's great opportuni- 
ty. It needs to teach men that they are 
free indeed., but that the highest exercise 
of that freedom is seen in not only giving an- 
other a chance, but in actually choosing to serve 
him. ''He that is greatest among you shall be 
your servant." This is the Christly thralldom 
that has no sign nor feeling of slavish serfdom. 
It is a service that develops people into a freer 
and happier liberty. To implant this truth of 
"service to man" together with that of ''redemp- 
tion from sin by faith in Christ" in the hearts and 
lives of these people as they begin to break out 
of the shell of Romish serfdom and to catch some 
breezes of the pure ozone of evangelical liberty 
is the great work of our Protestant evangelism. 

That the church will meet the demands of the 
hour and do its duty, and that the people will 

open their minds and hearts 
The Church Will and arms to receive the mes- 

Do Its Duty. senger and his message we 
have no doubt. Never before 
in the history of Mexico have the people been 
reaching out for the truth as now. 

The future of Mexico religiously is easily fore- 



212 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

told. There are thousands of the best educated, 

professional men of the re- 
Protestant Ideals public who have long since 
Strong in Mexico, become disgusted with the 

Mexican ecclesiasticism and 
many have not been outspoken because of senti- 
ments and family relationships; some have drift- 
ed into scepticism, but thousands are Protestants 
in belief, some of whom do not hesitate to say so 
anywhere and everywhere, while others who are 
not interested enough to lose prestige in social 
or businss circles are only waiting opportune 
time — a landslide that is inevitable — when evan- 
gelism will be popular. There is another large 
class who believe in closer competition and wish 
to see Protestantism spread in order to wake up 
Rome and keep it busy. A priest in charge of a 
large Catholic church told the writer that he 
would like to see the town more evenly divided, 
that he was sure it would wake up his people 
from their lethargy and improve them morally. 
(This is very unusual, however, as the priests are 
generally very active in taking up all Bibles and 
tracts that the Protestants distribute.) 

The number of priests who have come into our 
connection, the large party of liberals, and the 
multitudes who at heart believe in 
Landslide Protestantism, together with the 
Inevitable, ever increasing thousands of the en- 
thusiastic, full-fledged, outspoken, 



Mexico's Tomorrow 213 

heart-rejoicing Christian believers bring almost 
within the range of vision an enevitable ladslide 
for glory and for God. May God hasten that day! 
The day when Mexico will be freer than when she 
signed that constitution of 1857! 

Mexico's tomorrow will not only be evangelical 
but all the blessings that the gospel gives will 
crowd her future. 

Today, politically, Mexico is a republic only m 
name and organization. The organization and 
functions of the executive, legis- 
Republic Only lative and judicial departments 
In Name. of the government of Mexico 

are exactly like those of the 
United States, but the machinery in Mexico, when 
it runs at all, runs very diflferently with a people 
that are under the yoke of Romanism. Having 
been taught not to think for themselves they have 
had no ambition to vote. And the truth is that 
the majority of them have not thought sufficiently 
to cast an intelligent ballot. Those who think 
they have, and who have an abundance of confi- 
dence in themselves, are the very ones that the 
officers of the government are afraid to trust, and 
evade their ballots. And so the entire election 
has been a farce. 

A popular or democratic form of government 



214 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

is no easy thing to build where the state has been 

and is so intimately 

Autocratic Romanism connected with the 

versus Catholic heierarchy 

Democratic Government, that has always been 

autocratic. The no- 
ble Juarez made an effort to cut loose from the 
church and build up democratic principles, and 
succeeded well, if only his policy had been follow- 
ed up. But for more than a score of years the 
government seems to have been graduallv drift- 
ing back to Rome. The Diaz administration, 
while friendly to all missionary enterprises, was 
thoroughly autocratic. To a certain extent this 
was necessary, and Rome has been responsible, 
and even peace may be purchased at too great a 
price. Only as the ideals of evangelical Protest- 
antism reach this people will there be developed 
a high intelligent and moral citizenship capable of 
carrying on a popular government. It is just 
possible that even after the people are prepared 
to vote and to vote intelligently the autocratic 
spirit of some few and the interests of a few rich 
may bring about other conflicts before a real and 
permanent democracy is established. 

There is too great a distance between the high 
and low, the rich and poor As yet the very class 



Mexico's Tomorrow 215 

that is so essential to the stability 
The Middle of any land, the middle class, the 
Class. common people, is not much In ev- 

idence in Mexico. In fact, until the 
last few years such a class did not seem to exist. 
They had only the extremely poor and the very 
lich, but now the middle class is being developed. 
This middle ground will be easy and rapid in fill- 
ing. It is augmented by thousands from the 
lower class who have been educated and prepared 
for noble citizenship through the splendid mod- 
ern school system, while thousands from the 
higher circle join in to swell the ranks. The lat- 
ter fall into this rank either because they are in 
sympathy with the common people, or because 
they had maintained their high place with the 
upper circle at too great a cost, who were unable 
financially to hold the place, but who had em- 
barrassed themselves in the financial world 
rather than join in with the low, or meet the so- 
cial ostracism that, falling beneath the high circle, 
would result. These especially have been the ones 
quick to fall into a common respectable class, 
while multitudes from the lower class are climb- 
ing by the path of education up to respectability, 
until already vox populi is being felt as a factor 
— a factor that hereafter must be reckoned with 
in national affairs. Whether the sensible and 
sober minded leadership of the republic will rec- 
ognize this factor and grant it its proper place and 



216 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

power remains to be seen. But Mexico is so in- 
timately and intelligently associated with the 
United States and its manner of popular suffrage, 
that likely sooner or later they will adopt and 
practice their method and allow the people to 
rule. Opposing parties will be organized and the 
officers of the government selecteed by the people 
at the polls. Of course in periods of transition a 
little imprudence on the part of the administra- 
tion will lead to conflicts occasionally; but the 
government of Mexico is destined to be some day 
a representative government for the people, by 
the people. And if troubles come they will soon 
blow over and the country will enter upon an era 
of untold prosperity. The golden days that the 
Juarez government foretold will burst upon the 
land in fact. 

Not only will Mexico's tomorrow have a new 
meaning religiously and politically, but commer- 
cially, industrially and socially as well. When 
peace prevails in Mexico that is 
Golden Days. produced not by autocratic prin- 
ciples of government — a peace 
that is gained not by wading roughshod through 
the blood of every honest antagonist that dares 
to lift up his head— ^not a peace that is preserved 
by a raised sword, but a peace that the entire peo- 
ple have ordered because they love it, such as is 
produced only through the exercise of the fullest 



Mexico's Tomorrow 217 

liberty of a people; when that glorious day shall 
dawn mines will open up and railroads will be 
stretched from city to city as never before by for- 
eign capital. The commercial interests — manufac- 
turing, industrial, agricultural and mining enter- 
prises will increase a hundred fold under the new 
gviarantee of liberty and justice that a free choice 
and heart love have ordered rather than the 
sword. Foreign capital will pour in from every 
source when the good will of the common people 
as well as the authority of the government stands 
ready to protect its interests. 

What many of the capitaHsts are still waiting 
for is not simply the people worked on from the 
outside, as Rome and Diaz have done, but as 

working on the inside of the 
Good Will Better people which Christian edu- 
Than Guns. cation and evangelization 

alone will do. This great 
work is going on at a rapid pace, but 
under less auspicious conditions than in earlier 
days. For example, one of our old missionaries, 
Rev. A. S. Southerland, rode into a city of Mex- 
ico one afternoon during the Juarez administra- 
tion, went into the courthouse and informed the 
judge that he had come to preach the gospel in 
the city and wanted his protection, whereupon 
the judge ordered the court room arranged for 
services for the evening, stating that that was the 



218 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

best hall in the city and that he, with all the city 
officials would be pleased to hear him. (The sub- 
ject that evening was "Jehovah," and the judge 
asked the preacher afterwards who was Jehovah, 
if he was one of the disciples or one of the saints ! 
A little boy that was standing by answered him 
intelligently. The judge was an educated man, but 
a product of a closed Bible CathoHcism, while the 
little boy was an ignorant little fellow but from an 
cpen Bible Christian home.) Not so today. If a 
Protestant dies in Mexico and some of his friends 
with his pastor gather to sing and pray in his 
home, a mounted policeman will appear at the 
door with raised sword and have the proceedings 
closed or send the crowd to jail. At the same 
time the priests are allowed to walk the streets in 
their long robes contrary to the written law of 
the country unmolested. The law on the subject 
has not been changed one iota sice Juarez's day. 
In fact, Juarez was the author of the law on the 
question, which provides that no religious gather- 
ings and processions shall take place outside of 
church buildings and places set apart for worship. 
This was meant to stop all public street debates 
and processions liable to cause violence that was 
of such common occurrence among the Catholic 
clergy and fanatical followers during the heated 
contests between church and state. It is also re- 
membered that just at this time all church prop- 



Mexico's Tomorrow 219 

erty was confiscated, leaving the buildings in the 
hands of the church to be lent to the people for 
worship as the needs might demand (presumably 
for Protestants also). To the writer the more 
recent interpretation of that law, viz: that it ap- 
plies to little peaceful gatherings in homes, etc., 
i^- a direct reversal of the original idea. At least 
when we see that new interpretation applied as 
the writer has on one occasion: a funeral service 
of a quiet little gathering of ten stopped. On an- 
other occasion in a capital city, as was also the 
first incident, an unmolested funeral procession a 
mile long, with flying banners and plumes, with a 
wild mob running along the sidewall^s ordering 
the people to take off their hats, and where one 
hesitated knocking it ofif, crying ^'Death to the 
Protestants and Americans!" and remembering 
that the Protestants are so much more needy for 
buildings to set apart for this purpose than are 
the Catholics, it seems there is a lack of fairness 
somewhere. 

But with all the close hedges and hidebound 
boundaries in which the gospel leaven has been 

circumscribed the warmth of the Holy 
Will Win Spirit is swelling the lump, sweeten- 
By Love, ing the manners and purifying the 

characters of the roughest and vilest, 
estabhshing an intelligent citizenship, whose ever 
expanding and widening influence is reaching the 



220 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

centers of the legislative, judicial and executive 
halls, and being felt as a factor in national affairs 
that will not be dismissed by the brush of a 
priestly robe. 

Mexico's tomorrow will be the brightest chap- 
ter in her history. She has a great future because 
she has great resources and a great people. 
Habits and customs will change, but every change 
will be to sweeten her social and national life. 
Her senoritas will put on hats and keep ofi the 
sun to brighten and sweeten their faces. Young 
men will not have to stand five hours in the rain 
and wind ^'playing bear," for the delight of his 
eyes will be turned out of the iron cage to go 
buggy riding with him, after that righteousness 
hath taken hold of them both. The architecture 
of the homes will be turned like a sock inside out, 
the "patio" pulled outside and the walls of the 
looms pushed inside, for the thief and robber will 
no longer be dreaded so much, and the society of 
the home will be more open and of freer access 
to friends and the public in general, since 
legal marriage has occurred and love and confi- 
dence prevail. The Mexican style of a house is 
directly opposite to that of the United States. 
In the United States the house is built in the cen- 
ter of the lot, leaving all the lot that the building 
does not cover on the outside, while in Mexico 
the house is built around the edge of the 



Mexico's Tomorrozv 221 

lot leaving the space that the house does not 
cover on the inside of the house. To each room 
is a door opening on this inside yard. There are 
no outside openings except on the streets where 
a window with heavy iron bars is placed, the eve- 
ning home of the young lady of the house. It is 
a selfishly constructed house, but really necessary 
to guard against losing all you have by robbery. 
Common windows and locks mean nothing. It 
takes walls and iron bars. 

With the advancement of the Christian religion 
the wholesale thieving and robbing will pass 
away and the truth of the prophet's message: "In 
that day shall this song be sung 
Bibles Better in the land of Judah; we have a 
Than Bars. strong city; salvation will God ap- 
point for walls and bulwarks. 
Open ye the gates, that the righteous nation 
which keepeth the truth may enter in. Thou wilt 
keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed 
on thee, because he trusted on thee. Trust ye in 
the Lord forever. For the Lord Jehovah is ever- 
lasting strength." The Bible in the homes and 
hearts of the people will be better protection than 
the walls ab6ut them. The safest and best pro- 
tection to all foreign interests as well as to all 
home industries in Mexico today, and will be 
'En la Manana," is to add to the curriculum of 
the magnificent normal and public school system 



222 Mexico, Yestej'day, Today and Tomorrow 

that President Diaz inaugurated, the Bible. If 
Madero, who is a Spiritualist, and naturally more 
friendly to real spiritual influences, should go a 
step further and put the Bible in the schools, the 
accomplishment of all these high ideals might be 
easily and peacefully reached. 

May the good sense, advice and faith in God, 
as exemplified by the poor Aztec mother in writ- 
ing to her daughter in her childish way in the 

twilight of civilization, as 
High Ideal of Aztecs given by Prescott in his 
A Good Foundation, liberal translation of Sa- 

hagun's "Historia de 
Nueva Espana," as given below, be so perfected 
by the progress of the centuries in the leadership 
of our neighbors, the Mexicans, as that they shall 
realize a twentieth century fruition of that faith 
and hope. 

Letter from Aztec Mother to Her Daughter, as 
Given by Prescott, vol. 3, page 353, Translated 
From Sahagun's ''Historia de Nueva Espana." 
Lib. 6, Cap. 19: 

"Mr?" beloved daughter, very dear dove, you have 
already heard and attended to the words that your 
father told you. They are precious words, and such 
as are rarely spokep or listened to, and which have 
proceeded from the bowels and heart, in which they 
were treasured up ; and your beloved father well knows 



Mexico's Tomorrow 223 

that you are his daughter, begotten of him, are his 
blood and his flesh ; and God our Lord knows that it is 
true. Although you are a woman and are the image 
of your father, what more can I say to you than has 
already been said? What more can you hear than 
you have heard from your Lord and father'^ Who 
has fully told what is becoming for you to do and to 
avoid, nor is there anything remaining, which con- 
cerns you, that he has not touched upon. Nevertlie- 
legs, that I may do towards you my whole duty, I will 
say to you some few words: The first thing that I 
earnestly charge upon you is that you observe and do 
not forget what your father has now told you, since 
it is all very precious; and persons of his condition 
rarely publish such things; for they are the words 
that belong to the noble and wise, valuable as rich 
jewels. See, then, that you take them and lay them 
up in your heart, and write them in your bowels. 

"If God gives you life, and these same words will 
you teach to your sons and daughters, if God will 
give them to you. The second thing I desire to say 
to you is, that I love you much, that you are my dear 
daughter. Eemember that nine months I bore you in 
my womb, that you were bom and 1 brought you up 
in my arms. I placed you in your cradle, and with 
my hands I nursed you. This i tell you in order 
that you may know that I and your father are the 
source of your being; it is we who now instruct you. 
See that you receive our words, and treasure them up 
in your breast. Take care tha/t your garments ar^ 
such as are decent and proper, and observe that you 
do not adorn yourself with much finery, since this is 
a mark of vanity and folly. As little becoming is it, 
that your dress should be very mean, dirty or ragged ; 
since' rags are a mark of the low, and of those that 
are held in contempt. Let your clothes be becoming 
and neat, that you may appear neither fantastic nor 
mean. When you speak do not hurry your word<^ 
from uneasiness, but speak deliberately and calmly. 
Do not raise your voice very high, nor speak very low. 



224 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

but in a moderate tone. Neither mince when yoi 
speak, nor when you salute, nor speak through your 
nose: but let your words be proper, of good sound, 
and your voice gentle. Do not be nice in the choice 
of ^your words. In walking, my daughter, see that 
you behave becomingly, neither going with haste nor 
too slowly; since it is in evidence that one is puffe-l 
up, to walk slowly, and walking hastily causes a 
vicious habit of restlessness and instability. There- 
fore walk neither very fast nor very slow; yet when 
it shall be necessary to go with haste, do so; in this 
use your discretion. And when you may be obliged 
to jump over a pool of water, do it with decency, that 
you may neither appear clumsy nor light. When you 
are in the street do not carry your head very much 
inclined or your body bent; nor as little go with you:-' 
head much raised; since it is a mark of ill breeding; 
walk erect, with your head slightly inclined. Do not 
have your mouth covered or your face from shanio, 
nor go looking like a near-sighted person, nor on your 
way make fantastic movements with your feet. Walk 
through the streets quietl;/ and with propriety. An- 
other thing that you must attend to, my daughter, is, 
that when you are in the street you do not go looking 
hither and thither, nor turning your head to look at 
this or that ; walk neither looking at the skies, nor 
on the ground. Do not look upon those whom you 
meet with eyes of an offended person, nor have the 
appearance of being uneasy; but of one who looks 
upon all with a serene countenance; doing this, you 
will give no one occasion of bein^ offended wit!-, you. 
Show a becoming countenance; that you may neither 
appear morose, nor on the other hand too complacent. 
See, my daughter, that you give yourself no concern 
about the words you ma,y hear in going through the 
street, nor pay any regard to them, let them who come 
and go say what they will. Take care that you 
neither answer nor speak, but act as if you neither 
heard or understood them; since, doing in thi-; man- 
ner, no one will be able to say with truth that you 




Francisco I. Madero, Jr.,, 



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Mexico's J^omorroiv 236 

have said anything amiss. See likewise, my daag-hter, 
that you never paint your face or stain it or your lips 
with colors in order to appear well; since this is a 
mark of vile and unchaste women. Paints and col- 
origin are things which, bad women use; the immod- 
est, who have lost all shame, who are fools and drunk- 
ards, and are called "rameras" (prostitutes). But, 
that your husband may not dislike you, adorn your- 
self, wash yourself, and cleanse your clothes; and let 
this be done with moderation; since, if every day you 
wash yourself and your clothes, it will be said that 
you are over nice- — too delicate; they will call you 
tapepizon tinemaxoch. My daughter, this is the 
course you are to take; since in this manner the an- 
cestors from whom you spring, brought us up Those 
noble and venerable dames, your grandmothers, told 
us not so many things as I have told you ; they said 
but few words, and spoke thus: 'Listen, my nniighters, 
in this world it is necessary to live with mucb pru- 
dence and circumspection,' Hear this allegory which 
T shall now tell you, and preserve it and take from it 
a warning and an example for living aright ; Here in 
this world we travel a very narrow, steo]") and dan- 
gerous road, which is as a lofty mountain ridge, on 
whose top passes a narrow path; on either side is a 
great gulf without bottom, and, if you deviate from 
the path, you will fall into it. There is need, there- 
fore, of much discretion in pursuing the road. My 
tenderly loved daughter, my little dove, keep the il- 
lustration in your heart, and see that you d'> not for- 
get it. It will be to you as a lamp and a beacon so 
long as you live in this world. Only one thing re- 
mains to be said and I have done; If God shall give 
you life, if you shall continue some years upon the 
earth, see that you guard yourself carefully, that no 
stain come upon you ; should you forfeit your chast- 
ity, and afterwards be asked in marriage and marry 
some one, you will never be fortunate, nor have true 
love; he will always remember that you were not a 
virgin, and this will be the cause of great affliction 



226 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

and distress; you will never be at peace, for your 
husband will always be suspicious of you. O ! my 
dearly beloved daughter, if you shall live upon the 
earth, see that not more than one man approaches, 
and observe what I shall now tell you as a strict com- 
mand. When i it shall please Grod that you receive a 
husband, and you are placed under his authority, be 
free of arrogance; see that you do not neglect him, 
nor allow your heart to be in opposition to him. Be- 
ware that, in no time or place, you commit the treas- 
on against him called adultery. See that you give no 
favor to another; since this, my dear and much be- 
loved daughter, is to fall into a pit without bottom, 
from which there will be no escape. According to the 
custom of the world, if it shall be known, for this 
crime they will kill you, they will throw you into the 
street, for an example to all the people, where your 
head will be crushed and dragged upon the earth, 
and others will take warning of your death. From 
this will arise a stain and dishonor upon our ances- 
tors, the nobles, senators from whom we were de- 
cended. You will tarnish their illustrious fame and 
their glory by the filthiness and impurity of your sin. 
You will, likewise, lose your reputation, your nobility 
and honor of your birth; your name will be forgot 
or abhorred. Of you it will be said that you were 
buried in the dust of your sins. And remember, my 
daughter, that though a man shall see you, nor your 
husband ever know what happens, God, who is in evert/ 
place, sees you and will be angry with you, and will 
also excite the indignation of the people against you, 
and will be avenged upon you as He shall see fit. By 
his command you will either be maimed or struck 
blind, or your body will wither, or you will com© to 
extreme poverty for daring to injure your husband. 
Or, perhaps. He will give you death, and put you un- 
der his feet, sending you to the place of torment 
Our Lord is compassionate; but if you will commit 
treason against your husband, God, who is in every 
place, will take vengeance on your sin, and will per' 



Mexico's Tomorrow 227 



mit you to have neither content nor repose, nor a 
peaceful life; and He will excite your husband to be 
always unkind to you, and will always speak to you 
in anger. My dear daughter, whom I tenderly love, 
see that you live in the world in peace, tranquilli+y 
and contentment all the days that you shall live. See 
that you disgrace not yourself, that you stain not your 
honor, nor pollute the luster and fame of ancestors. 
See that you honor me and your father, and reflect 
glory on us by your good life. May God prosp-^r you, 
my first-born, and may you come to God who is in 
every place. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Pyramids of Mexico 




O FIND some of the most wonderful 
pyramids and ancient ruins of the world 
one does not need to tour Egypt or 
Greece nor look up Pompeii or the great 
Cheops, or peer into the latest excavations along 
the Nile. We do not need to cross the sea to 
find some wonders in this line. Plow few people, 
even among those who have gone abroad, have 
ever seen America! Have you ever seen the 
gigantic Pyramid of the Sun in Mexico? 

By courtesy of the Leslie-Judge Company of 
New York we give their description and illustra- 
tions of the pyramids of San Juan Teotihuacan. 

San Juan Teotihuacan is only about one hour's 
run out from Mexico City: 

The pyramids of San Juan Teotihuacan, one of 
which is still more than two-thirds covered by a 
layer of earth from thirty-five to forty feet in 
depth, have contributed only meagerly to arche- 
ological lore. That they were obviously fashion- 
ed by human hands is all the authentic informa- 
tion they have vouchsafed to yield. When the 
Spaniards took possession of Mexico, four hun- 



Pyramids of Mexico 229 

dred years ago, they found these earth mounds 
in much the same condition they are in now. If 
the great Pyramid of the Sun once held in its 
midst a store of treasure, as legend relates, this 
treasure was removed and its hiding place block- 
ed up by people long since swept away by Mex- 
ico's greatest enemy — Popocatapetl. Historians 
concur in the belief that in a period antedating 
history a great peregrinating tribe came to Mex- 
ico, bringing with them the nowledge of a sym- 
bolic art reflecting that which still exists in Egypt. 
The route followed by these people, either in 
their journey to Mexico or homeward bound, is 
marked by m^onuments so indestructible that 
they defy the hand of centuries. These travelers, 
of whom no written documents remain, left be- 
hind them ruins of once impressive structures, 
showing their architecture and substantiality 
the handiwork of a highly enlightened race. 
Historians inclined to scout the story of a one- 
time occupation of Mexico by Egyptians attrib- 
ute the pyramids to the Aztec and Toltec tribes 
of Indians. Others place their date at a pre- 
Aztec age. However that may be, it is certain, 
from articles found during the processes of exca- 
vation, that both the Aztecs and the Toltecs at 
various times utilized the pyramids in their re- 
ligious rites. 



230 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 

The Pyramid of the Sun which almost equals 
Cheops in its majesty, is built in a puzzlijng 
fashion, in layers. The material used in its 
formation is basalt and brachitic rock. Each 
layer forms a complete pyramid in itself, its outer 
surface being faced with masonry and then plas- 
tered over with a coating of cement or fine mor- 
tar. Should the outer layer be removed, it 
would reduce the size of the pyramid about four 
and a half yards on each side. A zigzag flight of 
stairs cut in rock leads from the base to the sum- 
mit. The only entrance thus far discovered is a 
dark well, about fifteen feet deep, faced with 
carefully squared stones. The height of the Pyr- 
amid of the Sun is 216 feet, and its dimensions 
at the base are 761 by 721 feet. The summit is 
narrowing and irregular, being fifty-nine feet 
from north to south and 105 feet from east to 
west. Historians claim that forrrierly a temple 
surmounted this pyramid, but there is no exist- 
ing sign of such a structure. The only thing that 
breaks the skyline is a small wooden cross, 
placed there by a native to mark the spot where 
a suicide ended his life. 

Leading directly from the Pyramid of the Sun 
is a marked roadway called the ''Path of the 
Dead," which leads to the Pyramid of the Moon, 
a half mile distant. Very little work has been 
done on this latter mound, which still has all the 



Pyramids of Mexico 231 

resemblance of a small but perfectly formed hill. 
The Pyramid of the Moon is 150 feet high. At 
its base it measures 511 by 426 feet. The plat- 
form on the top is nineteen feet square, and there 
is a slight indication of the temple or tomb 
which formerly stood there. Along the Path of 
the Dead are still to be seen fragments of side- 
walk, with tracings of red and white paint. From 
along the sides a number of sarcophagi contain- 
ing human bones and reUcs of pottery have been 
excavated. 

Within a circumference of half a mile from the 
two pyramids there are numerous minor mounds, 
the majority of them earth covered. They bud 
up in weird fashion out of a naturally level 
stretch of ground. A few of these which have 
been partly unearthed disclose the tops of more 
or less elaborate stone houses. One shows a 
symmetrical, truncated pyramid, with a house 
built over and around it. This has been desig- 
nated as the priests' house 

Several of the excavated houses, to visit which 
one descends twenty or twenty-five feet of stone 
steps, evidence a high civilization in the former 
occupants. The fragments of wall show a poUsh- 
ed surface, decorated in colors in conventional 
design. Nearly all of the houses contain wells, 
round and perfectly made, in which, from a depth 
of from thirty-five to forty feet, an abundance of 



232 Mexico, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow 



pure water is always found. Almost anywhere 
wilthin half a mile of this buried city, of which 
the pyramids are supposed to have once formed 
the center, the natives dig up arrow heads, 
fragments of pottery and numerous clay faces 
no two of which are alike. The small clay faces 
are said to be fashioned after the faces of dead 
monarchs. These ancient relics are imitated in 
large quantities by the Indians, who cleverly 
fashion them out of clay The majority of gen- 
uine relics go into the large museum which has 
been built within a stone's throw of the Pyramid 
of the Sun. However, the imitations are iffter- 
esting, and the visitor to Mexico might do worse 
than bring one away with him as a souvenir of 
one of the most, if not actually the most, won- 
derful archeological treasure houses in the world. 
During the recent political changes in Mexico, 
the work of excavation has been suspended. It is 
to be hoped that President Madero will show the 
same energy in this as he has in other interests 
which make for the welfare of the people and of 
the country under his control, and that soon, 
through his activities in the archeological field, 
Mexico will become as much the Mecca of tour- 
ists as is Egypt. 



INDEX 



Aldama, 154. 
Allende, Ignacio 165-157. 
Anglo Saxon and U. S., 200. 
Alvarez, 169, 182, 183, 189. 
Ariste, Mariano, 181. 
Armi% U. S., Enters Mexico 

Citif, 180. 
Aztec, 127, 141, 223, 107. 

Ball, Social, 50. 

Beauty, 86. 

Bravo, Leonardo, 161, 162. 

Bravo, Nicholas, 162. 

Brincourt, 193. 

Business, Methods, 5,59,208 

Buatamante, 176, 180. 

Cactus, 92. 

Calleja, 166, 161. 

Calleja, Gen., 166. 

Chicle, 96. 

Chichimean, 19. 

Clifimen, Their IIoufc.es, 19; 

Dens, 17, 87: Skeletons, 

29; In Caves, 22, 27. 
Climate, 84. 
Cock Fights, 45. 
Colporters, 114. 
Columbus, Christopher, 128. 
Comonfort, 169, 170, 179, 

183, 184, 189. 
Constituttions, 166, 169. 
Cortez, 128, 130; Conquest, 

132, 136- Blockade, 141. 



Correra, 182. 
Cotton, Com, 89. 
Curtship, 52. 
Cubas, Garcia, 112. 
Cuernavacca, 86. 
Cuevas, Jse. M., 168. 
Cuitlahuac, 140. 
Customs, :35, 40, 41-45. 

De la Barra, 202. 

Diaz, Poriino, 195, 197, 199, 

201, 202. 
Divorce, 55. 
Dress, 51. 
Drinlving, 60. 
Education: Hope of Mexico, 

66, 71; (Jompul&ory, 67; 

Necessity, 75 ; Early 

Schools, 78. 
Escobedo, 194. 
Ethnology, 101. 
Evangelism, 108, 110. 
Exports, 96. 

Farias, Va]ente Gomez, 179. 
Ferdinand, 163. 
Fiestas, 41-44. 
Forey, Gen., 97. 
Fruite, 89. 

Gambling, 46. 
Gold, 91, .92, 96. 
Gonzales, Manuel, 195. 
Guatemozin, 140, 142. 



234 



Index 



Guerrero, 164, 163. 

Habits, 39, 208. 

Henequen, 92. 

Herrera, 181. 

Hidalgo: His Mother, 150; 
ji Priest, 151; Proclaiming 
Independence, 153 ; Vic- 
tor, 154; Loses Out, 156; 
Shot, 158. 

Home Life, 54. 

Hugo, Victor, 171. 

Hunting, 34. 

Idol Maker, 29. 

Independence, 166, 149. 

Inquisition, 144, 145. 

Iturbide, 163, 165. 

Juarez, 170, 196; Bi rth 
Place, 185; Family, 186; 
Youth, 187 ; Education, 
188; In Chains, 189; 
Trouble with France, 192; 
Death, 194. 

Lands, 99, 100. 

Lerdo, Sebastian, 195. 

Labastida, Bishop, 91, 92. 

Linan, 163. 

Lost : a Bod;7, 35 ; a Soul, 121 

MacDoneU, Eobt., Tomb of, 
28; Institute, 24, 29, 30. 

Madero, Francisco I., 203, 
204, 206. 

Maguey, 91. 

Manufacturing, 99. 

Marriage, 53; with Rela- 
tives, 57; with Americans, 
58. 

Maximilian, 172, 192, 193, 
195. 

Mendoza, Antonio, 143. 



Mexico's Tomorrow, 210, 211 ; 
Middle Class, 215; Demo- 
cratic, 213; Golden Days, 
216; Evangelistic, 218, 220 

Mija, 196. 
Mina, 163. 

Mining, 94-95. 

Miramon, Miguel, 191, 193. 

Missionary Tour, 25, 26, 27. 

Missions (See Protestant- 
ism); Teaching, 71, 113; 
Opportunity, 72, 74, 79, 
80, 209, 211; Progress, 
117, 119; Necessity, 120, 
121. 

Moctezuma, 129; Kidnaped, 
135; Death, 137. 

Morelos, 161, 162, 159. 

Napoleon III., 190, 191. 

National Museum, 17, 65. 

National Library, 65. 

Nombre de Dios, 24. 

Ocampo, 183. 
Orosco, 205. 
Ortega, 199. 
Orrantia, 163. 

Padraza, Gomez, 177. 

Peace Treaty, 181. 

Peace Conference, 126. 

Pena y Pena, 180. 

Plaza and Paseo, 50, 51, 62. 

Postal Service, 08. 

Prescott, 17. 

Protestantism, 211. (See 
Missions), 214; Win by 
Love, 219-220. 

Pyramids, 222-224 (see Il- 
lustrations.) 

Queretaro, 154. 



Index 



235 



Railroads, 97. 
Ramirez, Tgnacio, 146, 17. 
Rayon, 158. 
Resources, 83. 
Reyes, Gen., 202. 
Ridpath, 166. 
Riva, Vicente, 162. 
Romanism, 103, 104, 107, 
209. 

Salamanca, Antonio, 187. 

Sialto, 25. 

San Bias, 32. 

Santa Anna, 177, 163, 178, 

179, 182-189. 
Schools: Early, 63; Modern, 

64; Technical, 65; Mission 

Growtn, 69. 
Scott, Gen., 168. 
Searching Party, 37-38. 
Silver, 92, 93. 
Smoking, 60. 
Solis, 17. 



Stock Raising, 93. 
Taylor, Gen., 181. 
Telegraph, 98. 
Temperance, 115. 
Texas, 167, 168, 179. 
Timber, 88. 
Tlascala, 132, 140. 
Toltecs, 30. 
Training, Home, 55. 
Tredwell, Miss Mae, 24, 29. 
Tres, Marias, 186, 86. 
Tyler, John, 160. 

Velasco, Luis, 143. 
Velasquez, Diego, 128, 136. 
Viceroys, Chronologically, 

146-147. 
Victoria, Guadelupe, 173-175 

Washington, G^o., 200. 
Wedding, 53. 

Zumargo, Juan, 143. 



AUG 26 1912 



